Small World: A Novel
A New York Times Editors' Choice!
One of Booklist’s “Top 10 Historical Fiction Novels of 2022”
One of the Los Angeles Times's “10 Books to Add to Your Reading List”
One of Book Culture's Most Anticipated Reads
“A bighearted, widescreen American tale.”—Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
“Masterpiece . . . The quintessential great American novel.”—Booklist (starred review)
“A vivid mosaic.”—BookPage (starred review)
Jonathan Evison’s Small World is an epic novel for now. Set against such iconic backdrops as the California gold rush, the development of the transcontinental railroad, and a speeding train of modern-day strangers forced together by fate, it is a grand entertainment that asks big questions.
The characters of Small World connect in the most intriguing and meaningful ways, winning, breaking, and winning our hearts again. In exploring the passengers’ lives and those of their ancestors more than a century before, Small World chronicles 170 years of American nation-building from numerous points of view across place and time. And it does it with a fullhearted, full-throttle pace that asks on the most human, intimate scale whether it is truly possible to meet, and survive, the choices posed—and forced—by the age.
The result is a historical epic with a Dickensian flair, a grand entertainment that asks whether our nation has made good on its promises. It dazzles as its characters come to connect with one another through time. And it hits home as it probes at our country’s injustices, big and small, straight through to its deeply satisfying final words.
One of Booklist’s “Top 10 Historical Fiction Novels of 2022”
One of the Los Angeles Times's “10 Books to Add to Your Reading List”
One of Book Culture's Most Anticipated Reads
“A bighearted, widescreen American tale.”—Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
“Masterpiece . . . The quintessential great American novel.”—Booklist (starred review)
“A vivid mosaic.”—BookPage (starred review)
Jonathan Evison’s Small World is an epic novel for now. Set against such iconic backdrops as the California gold rush, the development of the transcontinental railroad, and a speeding train of modern-day strangers forced together by fate, it is a grand entertainment that asks big questions.
The characters of Small World connect in the most intriguing and meaningful ways, winning, breaking, and winning our hearts again. In exploring the passengers’ lives and those of their ancestors more than a century before, Small World chronicles 170 years of American nation-building from numerous points of view across place and time. And it does it with a fullhearted, full-throttle pace that asks on the most human, intimate scale whether it is truly possible to meet, and survive, the choices posed—and forced—by the age.
The result is a historical epic with a Dickensian flair, a grand entertainment that asks whether our nation has made good on its promises. It dazzles as its characters come to connect with one another through time. And it hits home as it probes at our country’s injustices, big and small, straight through to its deeply satisfying final words.
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Community Reviews
thenextgoodbook.com
What’s it about?
This novel highlights several passengers (and their ancestors) that are on a train bound for Seattle in 2019. Their lives and the lives of their ancestors intersect in a variety of ways. In this book we see the history of the American West through a variety of different viewpoints.
What did it make me think about?
All the people that came before us.
Should I read it?
This was a novel with lots of different story lines, featuring lots of different characters, in two very different centuries. It was a lot to keep track of but what an interesting premise for a book. Look at several of the passengers on a train and trace back the stories of their ancestors until you see how the passengers are connected through previous generations? I enjoyed lots of aspects of this book, but all the plot lines might be too much for some readers. Some story lines were a little more gripping to me than others. However, the history of the American West told through these stories was always compelling.
Quote-
“Why was Jenny making them all do this against their wills? Because it mattered. History mattered. It was time for her children to acknowledge once and for all that nobody in the Chen-Murphy household had gotten where they were without help. Virtually every opportunity that had ever been available to the Chens was owing directly or indirectly to the struggles of their forebearers . For all their good fortune, they were beholden to their ancestors.”
What’s it about?
This novel highlights several passengers (and their ancestors) that are on a train bound for Seattle in 2019. Their lives and the lives of their ancestors intersect in a variety of ways. In this book we see the history of the American West through a variety of different viewpoints.
What did it make me think about?
All the people that came before us.
Should I read it?
This was a novel with lots of different story lines, featuring lots of different characters, in two very different centuries. It was a lot to keep track of but what an interesting premise for a book. Look at several of the passengers on a train and trace back the stories of their ancestors until you see how the passengers are connected through previous generations? I enjoyed lots of aspects of this book, but all the plot lines might be too much for some readers. Some story lines were a little more gripping to me than others. However, the history of the American West told through these stories was always compelling.
Quote-
“Why was Jenny making them all do this against their wills? Because it mattered. History mattered. It was time for her children to acknowledge once and for all that nobody in the Chen-Murphy household had gotten where they were without help. Virtually every opportunity that had ever been available to the Chens was owing directly or indirectly to the struggles of their forebearers . For all their good fortune, they were beholden to their ancestors.”
Small World, another rare but treasured novel that seems as though it were written specifically for me.
I loved everything about this book. The pace, the plot, the characters; everything. Even the ending, which seems to just end without explanation or conclusion, fit so very well to the rest of the novel. Like the dream of America itself, you are left to imagine and dream as to what may have become of these characters. It wouldn't work for most books, but it did for Small World.
In stark contrast to so many books I have read that I really didn't like ANY of the characters, there isn't a character here that I didn't love. Or at least want to know their story.
It's a story of America, and I loved it.
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