I went into this book without knowing much about it and I absolutely loved it! The characters were so well-written that I really felt like I knew them and loved them, yet even while being more character driven, the story never dragged. It was told in dual timelines and I was equally invested in both. The way they were both written made it easy to follow as we flipped back and forth between the timelines.

It was my absolute favorite type of book — writing that feels light and goes down easy but is still thoughtful and substantive. I loved the sister story, the middle-age coming-of-age, the drama mixed with humor, the family backstory, the quirky crazy neighbors, all of it.

I loved this book so much and had a great time reading it. I highly recommend it to fans of literary fiction and family dramas with a complex cast of characters that you will grow to love. I’ll definitely be checking out more from this author’s backlist!

Small World finds us with two sisters who haven't seen each other in ten years, and have lived on opposite coasts for twnety. They are now close to middle-age, and both divorced without children. The west coast sister comes to live with the east coast sister. Things get tense when the people upstairs from their apartment open a yoga studio right above them.

One works from home and is annoyed by the upstairs noise day and evening, The other doesn't really mind too much, but also avoids any type of conflict. Funny and awkward things happen as they all coexist in one building.

The huge issue between the sisters is their childhood with their disabled sister and a mother who was devoterd to the cause of the handicapped. The girls were expected to fend for themselves most of the time, as their parents were too busy for them. They loved their sister but didn't realize the impact her life had over them until they were adults.

A crisp, family story where relationships and sibling dynamics are explored in a most interesting way.


Thank you Netgalley and Ecco Publishers.
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Two sisters in their 50s are living together again after their marriages end. Their new living situation forces them to remember their difficult childhood, when their severely disabled sister died.

The emotions in this one were strong, as I traveled between crying and laughing. It was difficult as a mom to see the sisters struggle to work through their upbringing, but ultimately this is a book that will stay with me for quite sometime.

This is a very quirky book that takes place in Cambridge (Boston) when two middle-aged sisters move in together. They haven't been close and frankly, they never really get close. They share an unusual family background as there was a third sister who died when she was a child. It seems the parents never recovered from that and perhaps the sisters never did as well. Add some hipster upstairs neighbors to the mix and a few others and you have a set-up for a slice of life type of novel.
It took me awhile to get into it. It helped that I'd recently been in Cambridge and could picture the locale. It quietly grows on you.

Thank you to NetGalley for an advance copy of this book. I suspect it will be beloved to readers who can identify with any part of the story.

Really loved the sister dynamic in this. Family stories are everywhere but I feel like this was unique but also believable. I loved the community they created.

"𝘐 𝘸𝘢𝘴 𝘨𝘢𝘮𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘳𝘵 𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘳. 𝘉𝘦𝘤𝘢𝘶𝘴𝘦 𝘸𝘩𝘦𝘯 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘳𝘵 𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘳, 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘨𝘦𝘵 𝘢𝘯𝘰𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘤𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘤𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘮𝘢𝘬𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨𝘴 𝘳𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵. 𝘉𝘦𝘤𝘢𝘶𝘴𝘦 𝘸𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘧𝘦𝘦𝘭𝘴 𝘭𝘪𝘬𝘦 𝘢𝘯 𝘦𝘯𝘥 𝘪𝘴 𝘰𝘧𝘵𝘦𝘯 𝘢 𝘣𝘦𝘨𝘪𝘯𝘯𝘪𝘯𝘨. 𝘐𝘴𝘯'𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘸𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘢𝘭𝘭 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘴𝘵𝘶𝘱𝘪𝘥 𝘥𝘪𝘷𝘰𝘳𝘤𝘦 𝘣𝘰𝘰𝘬𝘴 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘴𝘰𝘤𝘪𝘢𝘭 𝘮𝘦𝘥𝘪𝘢 𝘢𝘧𝘧𝘪𝘳𝘮𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘱𝘰𝘴𝘵𝘴 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘮𝘪𝘴𝘦𝘥?"

𝗦𝗠𝗔𝗟𝗟 𝗪𝗢𝗥𝗟𝗗 by Laura Zigman is a clever, character-driven story about Joyce and Lydia, two divorced and estranged sisters who move in together and attempt to reconnect while processing the scars from their unusual upbringing.

I love books that examine unique family dynamics, and this one does so in both a heartwarming and humorous way. You won't want to miss how Joyce takes posts from her neighborhood Small World online message board and turns them into poems.

Thanks to Ecco Books for the copy to review.

Thank you to NetGalley for an advanced copy of this book n exchange for my honest review. This is my first time reading a book by this author. While I didn’t have a problem with the writing, I just found the book to be very boring. It was too slow moving of a story for my liking and I ended up not finishing it after reading more than half of it.

I received an ARC of this in exchange for an honest review. DNF at 24%. I just couldn't get into this. She's 50 something but sounds 15. So repetitive and slow moving. Inner musings are not my jam.

✏️ It’s a Small World After All ✏️

⭐️⭐️⭐️.5

📚5/135
Small World by Laura Zigman
Format: 📱 (@netgalley )

I don’t think I was QUITE in the mood for a family/realistic drama or I think would have rated this a full 4! It was hopeful and heart wrenching at the same time, and the style was very interesting as the main character writes poetry out of a “Nextdoor” style website posts, which end each chapter. There’s a voice switch that is both complex to read and helps guide the reader through timelines. The story lagged a bit at times for me, but this is my first more realistic fiction read in a while and I think that played into it because I did find the story very compelling and well told.

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Joyce and Lydia are two sisters who’ve found themselves both divorced and on their own. As they come to live together, they avoid processing the impact of their childhoods lived in the shadow of a sister with a profound disability. When new neighbors cause a rift between them, they’re forced to face the reality of their complex family dynamics.

#bookstagram #bookreview #readersofinstagram #booksta #noshelfcontrol #bookish #bookishlove #bookstagrammer #bookworm #bookreview #arc

Read this in one sitting, cover to cover. Zigman writes a beautiful unfolding about two women who are recently divorced, trying to figure out how to live together as adult sisters. I loved the "Small World" snippets, definitely a creative play on the Nextdoor phenomenon. Come for the family drama, stay for the teary realizations about aging, fallible parents, and unexpected ending.

The premise of 𝗦𝗠𝗔𝗟𝗟 𝗪𝗢𝗥𝗟𝗗 by Laura Zigman really appealed to me. It’s the story of two 40-something sisters, both newly divorced, who decide to take a stab at living together. Joyce and Lydia grew up in a strained home where their father was largely absent and their mother devoted almost exclusively to their disabled sister, Eleanor. Over the ensuing years the two haven’t been estranged, but neither have they been close.⁣
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I love stories of sisters and had no trouble breezing through this one. The storytelling was strong, I laughed out loud in many parts, I teared up in a few, and I appreciated that the author wrote from a place of knowledge, having had a disabled sister herself. Yet, writing this review a couple weeks after finishing the book, it’s just not one that stands out in my mind. It did the job at the time and I appreciate that. I think many will enjoy it, but it’s not going to live in my memory. So, in the end, for me I guess it was just okay.⭐️⭐️⭐️💫⁣
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Thanks to @eccobooks for an electronic ARC of #SmallWorld.

Alice Hoffman recommended! Which should tell you everything. Bc even if you don't trust me, trust her. This book is wonderful. Beautiful, poignant, sad, hopeful and utterly human. It walks us between childhood and adulthood, understanding and confusion. The world through the lense of a child and then looking back with years of experience, as an adult to see it all differently. To heal. There's no one big emotional moment or discovery, but it comes in stages, in frustration and forgiveness and it's a journey I am glad to have gone on with these sisters. All three of them.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Ecco for gifting me a digital ARC of Laura Zigman's latest novel - 4.5 stars rounded up!

Joyce and Lydia grew up in a household with parents totally focused on their disabled daughter, Eleanor, who died when she was ten. Both Joyce and Lydia are recently divorced and Lydia has moved from California to temporarily live with Joyce in Massachusetts. Joyce works from home archiving family photos and has a hobby of making poems from Small World posts (similar to NextDoor). Joyce is looking forward to developing a better relationship with Lydia. But old relationship patterns are hard to change and the sisters are no exception. Then when new neighbors move in upstairs, the relationship fractures further.

I loved this beautifully-written, somewhat quirky tale of these two sisters trying to make a new life from the ashes of their old ones. The little poems of real life that Joyce fashions from the online posts provide another glimpse into people's lives and are a nice, typically humorous, contrast to the sisters' struggles to move on from their childhood trauma and patterns. It's also a look into how families cope when a child has a disability and how the world views them as well. I have loved Zigman's novels and am happy to recommend this one as well!

Small World is Laura Zigman's new novel.

What's it about? Family. Two sisters - Joyce and Lydia - find themselves sharing an apartment after their divorces. This proximity has them reliving and often reverting to childhood behaviour. But can this close physicality perhaps help them to confront and deal with unresolved issues as well?

I loved that Joyce and Lyndia were not cookie cutter characters. They're both quirky and believable. I didn't love them all the time, but quite liked them. Perhaps because Zigman has captured the truth with her characters?

Small World is told in a past and present narrative. This style of storytelling gives the reader aha moments as the 'why' pieces of the present snap into place.

The book was a slow burn for the first part, but picked up momentum as part two brings supporting players to the table - and more issues. Or perhaps not...

Zigman captured the emotions and hurts alongside the joy and acceptance. On reading the author's notes, I discovered there is more than a little of her own experiences woven into the book.

An excellent read on many fronts. And I have to say, I stopped more than once, reflecting on my own familial ups and downs. Zigman is a very talented wordsmith.

Oh, and there are also many entries from a neighbourhood online group (called Small World) that have been turned into poetry by Joyce. I quite enjoyed them!

I have a lot of sisters, each filled with personality and drama. Between us, we have a lifetime of secrets, shared rituals and ways to drive each other absolutely crazy. So, I loved this book. Author Laura Zigman has written SMALL WORLD about family dysfunction, invisible siblings, the over-attention of parents for the weak and frailest in the family and the silence that surrounds deep, penetrating loss. She writes also of the blindness that sets in when there is so much familial pain that it is easier for some children to just stop seeing it; to choose to view the pieces that seem normal even if they are not. The tales within this book unwrap like an onion. It is well worth the wait to learn all the details. I received my copy from the publisher through NetGalley.

This was not what I was expecting but yet it was still good. This book comes out tomorrow and I am excited to talk about it on pub day.

This was my first read from Laura Zigman and I really enjoyed it.

A story about two divorced sisters who come to live together in their mid forties. They get to know each other again while also dealing with the things that happened in their family when they were young.

"Small World" was a funny, emotional, and unique story with very unique and quirky characters.

A thought-provoking family drama about sisters, secrets, grief, hope, and forgiveness.

While I enjoyed the family story and layers, I found none of the main characters to be likeable and so I found myself slogging through.

Small World is a glimpse into the lives of two sisters, Joyce and Lydia Mellishman. Both recently divorced, Lydia moves back to Cambridge Mass and temporarily moves in with Joyce. Having not been especially close in their adult lives, the two sisters attempt to coexist together and while doing so, uncover just how much their childhood experiences have shaped them into the quirky adults they are.. This book is an honest look at how emotional childhood experiences connect siblings. I very much enjoyed this book and look forward to reading more from Laura Zigman. Don't skip the acknowledgments section in this book! Thank you to NetGalley and Ecco Press for an advanced copy of this book, all opinions are my own.

I didn’t especially care for this book. It turned into something that I wasn’t expecting.
I didn’t particularly like any of the characters in the book. I thought Joyce was quite immature and petty.
I do appreciate the author writing a novel revolving around a sensitive subject, but it was topic that I didn’t want to embark upon.