Small Silent Things: A Novel

Written by Robin Page

Narrated by Myra Lucretia Taylor, Nathan Hinton and 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.

• Language: English
• Publisher: HarperAudio
• Release date: Sep 3, 2019
• ISBN: 9780062972590

Robin Page

Robin Page has worked on numerous bestselling and award-winning titles, including Caldecott Honoree What Do You Do With a Tail Like This?. She lives in Boulder, Colorado.

Reviews for Small Silent Things

[Linda Ivey · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This was a really hard read as you watch the character Jocelyn dissociate after she gets news that her cruel abusive mother has passed away. Conrad her husband recommends therapy. In the meantime she meets Simon her neighbor a Rwandan refuge a Tutsi whose family was killed during a massacre. He is deeply wounded and tries to move on with his memories torturing him. Jocelyn who is left with warped highly sexual tendencies falls for a tennis instructor who is married and that further degrades her mental facilities. Simon’s the is approached by a Claudette woman claiming to be his daughter and hope lives again. I understand the title of the book lending toward the secrets with their heads. The cover graphic is intriguing because the head does not depict a woman with a biracial heritage just a myriad of colors that look abstract. Makes me wonder if the memory Jocelyn’s sister is a part of the colors. Simon is much stronger as he befriends Lucy and Jocelyn.
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