Small Silent Things

A Novel

By: Robin Page

Narrated by: Myra Lucretia Taylor, Nathan Hinton, Eboni Flowers

A lyrical, haunting debut that explores the power of parenthood, identity, lust, and the legacy of trauma, as the lives of two neighbors are upended by ghosts from their past lives.

When the news of her mother’s death reaches Jocelyn Morrow, it stirs up memories of her traumatic childhood. She is a mother herself now, to six-year-old Lucy; living a life of privilege in Southern California with her husband Conrad; moving in a world of wealthy white women, even though she is not white; as far away from her past as she can get. Her designer clothes cover a net of scars across her back, and she hides an even deeper mark—a fundamental stain, something she believes invited her abuse. She also has a blossoming secret: she is becoming obsessed with Kate, her tennis coach.

Her neighbor Simon Bonaventure is a successful landscape architect and a Rwandan refugee. He too is haunted, by the wife and daughter who were taken from him in the genocide twenty years ago. The ghosts of those he could not save, and those who took them, are never far, and now he has received a letter—allegedly from his daughter, grown, and full of questions for a father she doesn’t know.

As Jocelyn and Simon begin a tentative friendship, they forge a bond out of their dark secret histories—a bond that may be their only hope of being pulled back from the abyss.

Sassy Sarah

Narrator was excellent. Parts of the book I had to struggle with getting through it.

Excellent, emotional and engaging

A complex story with three povs. My favorite character was Simon, I felt he had the deepest substance. Each one of them has been through something that changed them. overall the book makes you wonder if your trauma actually changes who you are at your core or if you're always that same person, just not allowing it to control you.

Unfortunately! Unpredictable!

I won't soon forget this one! I had absolutely no ideal where this story was headed but I had to make myself put the book down so I could get some sleep! At times I read my book long with the audio version and at times I closed my eyes and and put myself right there in the story. The narrators were fantastic! Thanks for the back story that's included in the book. Bravo Robin Page!

Unexpected

Overall I enjoyed the story that the author was telling. The ending was not what I expected, nevertheless it was nice. Mental illness, PTSD, abuse, and other atrocities that result from mistreatment are becoming the norm in today’s world. A strong support system is essential for survival.

This is the book I've been waiting for

Disclaimer: I know Robin Page, and I had the privilege and honor to read her writing over 20 years ago. Robin is a narrative genius with how she weaves together words and images so that they leap out of the page into technicolor aliveness. I read some of her drafts, waiting for them to be collected into a work that I knew I would want to read when it was finished. It's been over 20 years and it has so been worth the wait. The stories within this story will tear at you and then fill you up in those jagged spaces. It's a huge audacious piece of work that realizes some tragedies are of such immensity that they cannot be talked about in any adequate way but only felt in silence of solitude, and that some joys are of such immensity that they cannot be talked about but only felt in the presence of those we love.