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Small World

A Novel

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Small World

Written by: Jonathan Evison
Narrated by: William DeMeritt
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About this listen

Winner of the Housatonic Book Award

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.

©2021 Jonathan Evison (P)2021 Penguin Audio
Fiction Genre Fiction Historical Fiction Literary Fiction Transportation Heartfelt
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What the critics say

A New York Times Editors' Pick | Joyce Carol Oates Prize longlist | One of The Christian Science Monitor's and Bookreporter's “Best Books 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 | An Amazon “Best of the Month” Pick in Literature and Fiction

“This is more than a sprawling, big-hearted, blue-collar novel, it’s a Dickensian saga on a grand American scale, filled with beauty and violence, tragedy and redemption. This is the kind of historical fiction that keeps you up all night, burning in your veins like kerosene.”—Jamie Ford, New York Times bestselling author of Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet

“A creative, insightful work of fiction. Evison pulls off a wonderful high-wire act of storytelling that few would attempt, and even fewer could achieve so sharply!”Jason Mott, author of the National Book Award winner Hell of a Book

What listeners say about Small World

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