Small world : a novel

Title:

Author:

Zigman, Laura, author.

Personal Author:

Zigman, Laura, author.

ISBN:

9780063088283

Edition:

First edition.

Physical Description:

289 pages ; 22 cm

Abstract:

One year after her divorce, Joyce invites her older sister Lydia, who is also divorced, to live with her until she finds a place of her own, but their relationship begins to fray as new revelations from their family's history come to light, forcing them to finally reckon with their childhood.

Subject Term:

Sisters -- Fiction.

Divorced women -- Fiction.

Family secrets -- Fiction.

Genre:

Domestic fiction.

Summary:

Holds:

Available:*

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Summary

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

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.

Reviews (1)

Kirkus Review

Two adult siblings move in together and struggle to come to terms with the long-ago loss of their disabled sister and their own troubled relationship. Like most siblings, the middle-aged Mellishman sisters at the heart of Zigman's amusing yet poignant new novel have chapters of history propping them up and weighing them down. Newly divorced Joyce, an archivist in Cambridge, is getting used to solitude again, whiling away her time on a neighborhood site called Small World, turning her neighbors' queries and complaints into strange but potent poetry. The act, she says, is therapeutic--and also easier than addressing the nagging questions about her own life. When Lydia, her older sister, leaves LA for the East Coast, Joyce invites her to move in for a while, secretly hoping proximity will force them to forge a bond they never quite managed to build. But they still can't seem to communicate or talk about their past. Their childhoods were laser-focused on Eleanor, their severely disabled sister, who died at 10. But although Eleanor's life was short, her impact was lasting, especially on her sisters, who learned to hide their own fears and problems in order to focus on hers. Zigman, who excels at depicting the emotional push and pull of sibling relationships, examines the conflicts and grief that play out in a family dealing with a disabled child with compassion and honesty. Yet she never loses her sharp sense of humor, as evidenced by the hilarious ongoing war between Joyce and her new upstairs neighbors, who seem to be running a yoga studio. As she reveals secrets previously unknown to Joyce, Zigman doesn't shy away from discussing the hardships the Mellishmans faced, but she also highlights small moments of wonder and joy that illuminate the sisters' shared path. The world might feel small, Joyce learns, but the power of hope always looms large. A compassionate, often funny examination of shared family grief and love. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.