Small World is a historical novel in the truest sense. Through fascinating and admirable characters, Evison shows us many historical landscapes and time periods, all loosely connected to the transcontinental railroad.
The plot focuses mostly on two time periods, one with ancestors in about 1850 and the other with their descendents in the present. Among the main characters in the 1850s are a twin brother and sister who have immigrated from Ireland; a Native American woman who is mistreated and hunted; a Chinese immigrant who becomes inexplicably wealthy from discoveries of gold; a couple of fugitive slaves; and the wealthy man who employs and then pursues them.
In the present, their family members include a basketball hero, an abused woman trying to escape, a train engineer, business owners, and many others.
If this sounds complicated, I didn't find it to be. The characters and time periods are distinctive, and I found it easy to keep track as the author moved from time to place. The novel is extremely well written, and the stories of each character are suspenseful but hopeful.
If historical fiction should give us a true taste of many lives and historical periods, I can't think of another book where it has been done better. Take your time and enjoy.
“The novel is easy to love in part because it deals in generosity and hope…Small World is ambitious, showing our interconnectedness across time, place and cultures.”—New York Times Book Review
"Riveting…Small World feels like a reminder that not a single one of us got here alone. We have inherited strengths from the individual tales of our ancestors, but we are still deeply dependent upon each other.”—Minneapolis Star Tribune
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