Small World

A Novel

By: Laura Zigman

Narrated by: Stacey Glemboski

“[A] brave and heartfelt book of truths.”—New York Times Book Review (A Group Text Pick and Editors' Choice)

A Boston.com Book Club Pick!

From bestselling author Laura Zigman comes a heartfelt novel about two offbeat and newly divorced sisters who move in together as adults—and finally reckon with their childhood

A year after her divorce, Joyce is settling into being single again. She likes her job archiving family photos and videos, and she’s developed a secret comforting hobby: trolling the neighborhood social networking site, Small World, for posts that help solve life’s easiest problems. When her older sister, Lydia, also divorced, calls to tell her she’s moving back east from Los Angeles after almost thirty years away, Joyce invites Lydia to move into her Cambridge apartment. Temporarily. Just until she finds a place of her own.

But their unlikely cohabitation—not helped by annoying new neighbors upstairs—turns out to be the post-divorce rebound relationship Joyce hadn’t planned on. Instead of forging the bond she always dreamed of having with Lydia, their relationship frays. And they rarely discuss the loss of their sister, Eleanor, who was significantly disabled and died when she was only ten years old. When new revelations from their family’s history come to light, will those secrets further split them apart, or course correct their connection for the future?

Written with wry humor and keen sensitivity, Small World is a powerful novel of sisterhood and hope—a reminder that sometimes you have to look back in order to move ahead.

©2023 Laura Zigman (P)2023 HarperCollins Publishers

Soap opera

Contrived plot with believable characters interesting sibling relationship and the effect of a disabled child on family dynamic

Meh

I was hoping the storyline would become more interesting along the way. I never connected to the protagonist at all.

Very boring

I was looking forward to this book for a positive vibe. It wS written like a 14 year old, selfish brat wrote it. The extra additions in the middle of nowhere were just distracting. The story was just too predictable. The narrator sounded so judgmental the entire book. Very disappointed.

Good read

Story line was a bit different than I am used to, but all in all worth the read.

It gets better.

I really wasn’t sure if I wanted to continue with this book at 3 hours in. This is not a genre I normally listen to but was trying to branch out. I really don’t like the older sister at all in this book but overall I’m glad I finished it. I’m not a fan of the ending.

Insightful look at family experiences not often discussed

So similar to my own family of origin, I was immediately drawn to this beautifully told, quiet, sensitively written story. The more I understood about these quirky sisters, the less quirky they became. This family and their profound challenges will remain with me.

Never really got there.

Flat ending. Lots of complaining.
No real closure. A little disjointed.
Death and sadness. Blah

Story drew me in

Provided an interesting perspective of a dysfunctional family. The realization how their past experiences shaped their tense but strongly connected relationship. I enjoyed the listen.

Terrible writing, where’s the editor

Many paragraphs of repetition, doesn’t move the narrative along while belaboring neurotic behavior. Twice in this book there were moments of actual interest and well formed thoughts, but then fell flat again. The narration itself was not the problem, but rather the material.