A Small Indiscretion

A Novel

By: Jan Ellison

Narrated by: Kathe Mazur

Length: 10 hrs and 9 mins

Publisher's Summary

Fans of Everything I Never Told You and The Girl on the Train will devour this page-turning literary debut about a harrowing coming-of-age and a marriage under siege from O. Henry Prize winner Jan Ellison.

“An emotional thriller . . . Connoisseurs of domestic suspense will finish this book in a few breathless sittings.” (Kirkus Reviews)

At nineteen, Annie Black abandons California for a London winter of drinking to oblivion and looking for love in the wrong places. Twenty years later, she is a happily married mother of three living in San Francisco. Then one morning, a photograph arrives in her mailbox, and an old obsession is awakened.

After a return trip to London, Annie’s marriage falters, her store floods, and her son, Robbie, takes a night-time ride that nearly costs him his life. Now Annie must fight to save her family by untangling the mysteries of that reckless winter in Europe that drew an invisible map of her future.

With the brilliant pacing and emotional precision that won Jan Ellison an O. Henry Prize for her first published story, A Small Indiscretion announces a major new voice in suspense fiction as it unfolds a story of denial, obsession, love, forgiveness—and one woman’s reckoning with her own fateful mistakes.

©2014 Jan Ellison (P)2014 Random House Audio

Critic Reviews

“Are those wild college days ever really behind you? Happily married Annie finds out.” ( Cosmopolitan)

"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)

“[A] cleverly constructed debut . . . a deftly crafted, absorbing novel that peels back the layers of Annie’s character as it reveals the secrets of her past and present.” ( Booklist)

Slow

it took me nearly a month to listen because I was just bored. The story is ok, but so slow and drawn out that I couldn't stay interested. There was one twist in the final chapters, but by then I just wanted to get it over with.

Well.....

This is well written and the author did put a lot of effort into detailing the story very thoughtfully. To me though it was not a captivating nor satisfying read. It falls into the genre of contemporary troubled marriages like other novels such as The Vacationers-Emma Straub and Us-David Nicholls. I did enjoy the twists towards the end of the story. For the most part the narrator did a good job but her male Irish accent quite often sounded like a Pakistani accent.

A wonderful story about life

A wonderful story about real life problems and old love and how it can affect your new life . Is it really worth harming your life to relive an old one?

Excellent mystery/love story

Well told, kept me engaged right until the end. Highly recommended. I think this is Jan Ellison's first novel - can't wait for the next one.

Wanted to love it but disappointed

This story had a good start and promise. But never really got off the ground. Too many boring spots. Had to listen to it at 2x speed and still skipped ahead quite a bit.

Outstanding, all around!

Excellent! The narrator did an outstanding job of presenting a story that was mysteriously presented to us in a way that was very captivating !

Dreadful

Slow and depressing story. I'm not sure why I kept listening, I thought that something would happen. I hated this story.

Very good book but too long

The book is very good and the plot is not easy to detect. There is plenty of drama. The ending is not so good.

It was not bad

The characters were well developed and there were enough mysteries to keep my interest. However, the story got stuck on superfluous descriptions and lagged a bit. She also left out the conclusion of two of the characters, which was a big bummer.

Engaging prose, well-crafted, and very well read

Not the kind of book I usually listen to, but for me it was ten good hours spent exploring different kinds of relationships from different perspectives. There are a lot of ideas and well-developed feelings crammed into the taught prose - not a lot of wasted sentences. The narrative jumps around a bit chronologically, and the author and narrator both did very good jobs making these shifts clear to immediately ground us in the new times/places.