Bring the table to your book club.

The Pilgrim’s Table unfolds over a single evening at Chez Mer, a small coastal guesthouse in Muxía, Spain – the place medieval travelers called the end of the world. Five strangers arrive carrying things they have not yet set down. By dawn, they have discovered that the stories they were carrying alone were the ones that needed to be told out loud.

This free Leader’s Guide is built to help you create that same kind of evening for your group.

What’s inside

• About the Novel – a concise summary of the story and its eight central themes, useful for groups meeting before everyone has finished the book.
• Facilitation Tips – five principles drawn directly from how Matthieu hosts the dinner in the novel, including how to use silence, how to receive without fixing, and how to honor different levels of sharing.
• Seven Icebreaker Questions – light, warm prompts to open the meeting. Choose one.
• Ten Core Discussion Questions – the heart of the guide. Each question is calibrated for groups that want to move past plot and into the deeper currents of the novel.
• Ten Bonus Discussion Questions – exclusive to this Leader’s Guide, for groups that want to go further. Includes prompts on Gata the cat, Alex’s voicemail, Isabella’s stone, Matthieu’s wrong mountain, and the cracked scallop shell that closes the book.
• A Sixty-Minute Meeting Schedule – a minute-by-minute outline you can run as written or adapt to your group.
• Prayer Points and Reflection Topics – seven prompts for groups that incorporate spiritual reflection. Easily adapted to silence or shared intention for groups that do not.
• Eight Group Activities – including the Pilgrim Book, the Stone Exercise, Shell Inscriptions, and Map the Journey. Pick one or build the whole evening around them.
• Recipes from the Story – Matthieu’s complete dinner menu: Mémé’s Leek and Potato Soup, Mémé’s Coq au Vin, and Plum Clafoutis, with full ingredients, method, and wine pairings from Cataluña, Rías Baixas, and Ribeira Sacra. Serving the menu turns your discussion into an experience.
• The Camino Soundtrack – access to the official curated Spotify playlist for the novel. Folk and acoustic music at a walking pace, including “Sweet Baby James” by James Taylor, which Claudia plays in Chapter One.
• Eight Action Steps – tangible practices to carry the conversation beyond the meeting. Identify your gate. Set something down. Walk with intention. Set a place at your table.
• Author Q&A – eight craft questions answered by Kevin Donahue, drawn from book club leaders who have read the novel closely. Honest answers about voice, restraint, the imperfect epilogue, and why Matthieu has never walked the Camino.

Format

PDF download, eighteen pages plus cover, formatted for printing or on-screen reading.

Cost

Free. This guide may be freely distributed to other book club leaders. Not for resale.