Behind the Scenes at the Museum (Twenty-Fifth Anniversary Edition): A Novel

by Kate Atkinson

Overview

A twenty-fifth anniversary edition of award-winning, bestselling author Kate Atkinson’s debut novel, Behind the Scenes at the Museum, a deeply moving and deeply funny family story of happiness and heartbreak

National Bestseller

Winner of the Whitbread Book of the Year

A New York Times Book Review Notable Book of the Year

Ruby Lennox begins narrating her own life at the moment of her conception and from there takes the reader on a whirlwind tour of the twentieth century as seen through the eyes of a girl determined to learn more about her family and the secrets it keeps.

Kate Atkinson’s dazzling first novel, named the 1995 Whitbread Book of the Year in England, is a darkly comic, deeply moving story of family heartbreak and happiness.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781250251503
Publisher:	Picador
Publication date:	12/01/2020
Edition description:	Anniversar
Pages:	336
Sales rank:	278,817
Product dimensions:	5.40(w) x 8.20(h) x 1.10(d)

About the Author

Kate Atkinson is the author of multiple award-winning and bestselling books, including Transcription, A God in Ruins, Life After Life, Case Histories, Human Croquet, and Emotionally Weird. Her debut novel, Behind the Scenes at the Museum, won the Whitbread (now Costa) Book of the Year prize in England. She lives in Edinburgh, Scotland.

Reading Group Guide

Discussion Questions

1. What do cupboards have to do with the story?

2. More than one reviewer compared Behind the Scenes at the Museum to Tristram Shandy and to the works of Marcel Proust and Charles Dickens. What might these novels have in common? How does Kate Atkinson update or expand upon the earlier books' use of narration and history?

3. One of Atkinson's innovations is her use of footnotes. Why do you think she adopted this non- fiction technique in a novel?

4. Although this novel is very much about a specific time and place, it has been embraced by audiences in twelve countries, in as many languages. What gives Behind the Scenes at the Museum such a universal appeal?

5. What is the meaning of the book's title?

6. What other fictional narrators does Ruby Lennox bring to mind?

7. What does Behind the Scenes at the Museum say about women's roles and opportunities in the family and in the world at large? What do the four generations of women in Ruby's family have in common?

8. Behind the Scenes at the Museum generated controversy in England when a critic called it "anti-family." How would you defend the book against this charge? What other novels, now considered classics, might have had to face this sort of accusation?

Editorial Reviews

Breathtaking...Kate Atkinson’s luminescent imagery is sure and sophisticated, poetic and darkly comic...Astonishing.”—Amanda Heller, The Boston Globe

“Remarkable...A multigenerational tale of a spectacularly dysfunctional Yorkshire family and one of the funniest works of fiction to come out of Britain in years.”—Ben Macintyre, The New York Times Book Review

“Delivers its jokes and tragedies as efficiently as Dickens once delivered his, though Atkinson has a game plan more sophisticated than Dickens’s...Will dazzle readers for years to come.”—Hilary Mantel, London Review of Books

“Scoundrels, malcontents, misfits, and cheats. Every family has them, though seldom are they handled with the winsome wit and wisecrackery that make Behind the Scenes at the Museum such a smart and funny read.”—The Washington Times

“Startlingly original...A poignant and beautifully wrought portrait of a young girl’s growth.”—Johanna Stoberock, The Seattle Times

“Really comic, really tragic, bracingly unsentimental...What a triumph! What joy!”—Boston Sunday Globe

“Stunning...Out-Copperfields David Copperfield...A powerhouse of storytelling, a treasure chest bursting with the painful, pitiful, sad, always fascinating details of the most ordinary of lives.”—Georgia Jones-Davis, Los Angeles Times

From the Publisher