Clear

Gather initial thoughts and broad opinions about the book.

1. What was your overall opinion of Clear? What were your favorite elements of the novel? What were your least favorite?

2. Compare and contrast Clear to another of Davies’s novels or short story collections. What similarities and differences can you identify?

Encourage readers to connect the book’s themes and characters with their personal experiences.

1. Reflect on your own relationship with religion. How does John’s journey with his faith throughout the novel reflect or contrast with your own?

2. Consider a time you felt isolated like Ivar. What was that experience like for you, and how does it connect with Ivar’s life?

3. Ivar and John struggle to communicate at first due to a   language barrier. Have you ever tried to learn another language? How do your experiences compare to that of the two men?

Examine the book’s relevance to societal issues, historical events, or cultural themes.

1. While the novel is set in 19th-century Scotland, consider how issues of eviction and economic injustice persist in societies grappling with gentrification, high housing costs, and growing wealth inequality. What elements of the novel’s story are still relevant today, and which are of purely historical interest?

2. Mary, Ivar, and John all experience different forms of sexual awakening in Clear. How does the novel reflect current discourses surrounding sexual identity and/or romantic relationships?

Dive into the book’s structure, characters, themes, and symbolism.

1. How does Davies’s use of different types of narration (first person, second person, and third person) impact the construction of the text?

2. Explore the importance of the island setting to both the plot’s narrative structure and the development of the main characters. How is the island described? How does its significance change over the course of the text?

3. Analyze the novel’s exploration of gender dynamics. How is Mary and John’s marriage depicted? How are they shaped by gender roles and expectations?

4. The novel contains various flashbacks throughout the main present-day narration. How do these flashbacks function in terms of illuminating characterization and the novel’s key themes and ideas?

Encourage imaginative and creative connections to the book.

1. If you adapted Clear into a film, whom would you choose to direct and whom would you cast as John, Ivar, and Mary?

2. Make a playlist of music by Scottish artists that reminds you of the mood and tone of Clear. Share your playlists and explain your choices.

3. Where do you imagine John, Ivar, and Mary end up after their boat to Trondheim? Where do you think a sequel would find them?