Without question, this structure was risky: There are literally eight different strands of story (and really nine, because we get both of the Irish twins' stories), and so this could've easily gone sideways.īut I couldn't wait to get back to each story. But Evison nails it! You never feel overwhelmed or have trouble keeping these characters straight. And a Native American girl who yearns for open spaces and freedom. A Chinese immigrant who pans for gold in California. Irish immigrant twins who try to make their ways in Chicago and then the sprawling West. An enslaved person who escapes in Illinois. We get the stories of each of these people, but as importantly, we get the story of the 19th century ancestors of each of these people. And the train engineer, on his last run before retirement. A family making a huge change in their lives. A mom trying to give her basketball prodigy son a leg up. So as a train speeds through a snowy night in Oregon, several passengers on this train are connected in ways they couldn't possibly know. A huge cast of diverse characters both in the present and in the 19th century populate this novel with interconnected stories about how beating injustice and flourishing in this Great American Experiment is at its essence a team sport. Small World is a huge, ambitious, but incredibly immersive Great American novel about how we're all connected in striving for the Great American Dream. He had mentioned on Facebook a few years ago that he felt like this is the novel he was born to write. Jonathan Evison's new novel Small World is, no exaggeration, his masterpiece. A huge cast of diverse characters both in the present and in the 19th century populate t First appeared at. And it hits home as it probes at our country's injustices, big and small, straight through to its deeply satisfying final words.moreįirst appeared at. It dazzles as its characters come to connect with one another through time. The result is a historical epic with a Dickensian flair, a grand entertainment that asks whether our nation has made good on its promises. 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. 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. The characters of Small World connect in the most intriguing and meaningful ways, winning, breaking, and winning our hearts again. 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, wi Jonathan Evison's Small World is an epic novel for now. Jonathan Evison's Small World is an epic novel for now.