A Small Indiscretion: A Novel
Random House, February 2016
At nineteen, Annie Black trades a bleak future in a washed-out California town for a London winter of drinking and abandon. Twenty years later, she is a San Francisco lighting designer and happily married mother of three who has put her reckless youth behind her. Then a photo from that distant winter in Europe arrives inexplicably in her mailbox, and an old obsession is awakened. Past and present collide, Annie's marriage falters, and her son takes a car ride that ends with his life hanging in the balance. Now Annie must fight for her family by untangling the mysteries of the turbulent winter that drew an invisible map of her future. A Small Indiscretion announces a major new voice in literary suspense as it unfolds a story of denial, love, forgiveness -- and one woman's reckoning with her own fateful mistakes.
Paperback | ISBN: 9780812985429 | Publication Date: February 2016
Reviews:
"Ellison is a tantalizing storyteller, dropping delicious hints of
foreshadowing and shifting back and forth in time, leaving the
reader off-kilter at times but moving her story forward with
cinematic verve."
-- USA Today
"An engrossing, believable, gracefully written family drama that
reveals our past's bare-knuckle grip on our present."
-- Emma Donoghue, New York Times
bestselling author of Room
"The literary equivalent of a day spa: sink in, tune out, turn
page, turn page, turn page. Delicious, lazy-day reading . . . just
don't underestimate the writing."
-- O: The Oprah Magazine (Editor's Pick)
"This voice is alive. It knows something. It will take us
somewhere. The magic is accomplished so fast, so subtly, that most
readers hardly notice . . . A Small Indiscretion is rich with
suspense . . . astonishing . . . Delectable elements of this
terrific first novel abound: Its characters are round and real . .
. Ellison gives us an achingly physical sense of family life . . .
Lovely writing guides us through, driven by a quiet generosity . .
. This voice knows something, and by the end of the novel, so do
we."
-- San Francisco Chronicle (Book Club Pick)
"Part psychological thriller, part character study, I peeled back
the pages on this book as fast as I could."
-- The Huffington Post
"A stunning debut by Jan Ellison . . . Like the photograph that
arrives in the mail and sets in motion the plot of this gorgeous
novel, A Small Indiscretion reminds us of the intensity of
youthful desire and of the fragile nature of a marriage built on
secrecy."
-- Ann Packer, New York Times bestselling
author of The Dive from Clausen's Pier
"Rich and detailed . . . The plot explodes delightfully, with
suspense and a few twists. Using second-person narration and
hypnotic prose, Ellison's debut novel is both juicy and
beautifully written. How do I know it's juicy? A stranger started
reading it over my shoulder on the New York City subway, and told
me he was sorry that I was turning the pages too quickly."
-- Flavorwire
"Are those wild college days ever really behind you? Happily
married Annie finds out."
-- Cosmopolitan
"An impressive fiction debut . . . both a psychological mystery
and a study of the divide between desire and duty."
-- San Jose Mercury News
"A novel to tear through on a plane ride or on the beach . . . I
was drawn into a web of secrets, a world of unrequited love and
youthful mistakes that feel heightened and more romantic on the
cold winter streets of London, Paris, and Ireland."
-- Bustle
"Ellison renders the California landscape with stunning clarity
. . . She writes gracefully, with moments of startling insight . .
. Her first novel is an emotional thriller, skillfully plotted in
taut, visual scenes."
-- The Rumpus
"To read A Small Indiscretion is to eat fudge before
dinner: slightly decadent behavior, highly caloric, and extremely
satisfying. . . . An emotional detective story that . . . mirrors
real life in ways that surprise and inspire."
-- New York Journal of Books
"If you liked Gone Girl for its suspenseful look inside
the psychology of a bad marriage, try A Small Indiscretion.
. . . It touches many of the same nerves."
-- StyleCaster
