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A HUNDRED SMALL LESSONS

Ashley Hay

An emotionally resonant and profound new novel from Ashley Hay, author of The Railwayman's Wife, interweaving the stories of two families through the house that bears witness to their lives.
When Elsie Gormley leaves the Brisbane house in which she has lived for more than sixty years, Lucy Kiss and her family move in, eager to establish their new life. As they settle in, Lucy and her husband Ben struggle to navigate their transformation from adventurous lovers to new parents, taking comfort in memories of their vibrant past as they begin to unearth who their future selves might be.

But the house has secrets of its own, and the rooms seem to share recollections of Elsie’s life with Lucy.

In her nearby nursing home, Elsie traces the span of her life—the moments she can’t bear to let go and the haunts to which she dreams of returning. Her beloved former house is integral to her memories of marriage, motherhood, love, and death, and the boundary between present and past becomes increasingly porous for both her and Lucy.

Over the course of one hot Brisbane summer, two families’ stories intersect in sudden and unexpected ways. Through the richly intertwined narratives of two ordinary, extraordinary women, Ashley Hay uses her “lyrical prose, poetic dialogue, and stunning imagery” (RT magazine) to weave an intricate, bighearted story of what it is to be human.

Ashley Hay is the internationally acclaimed author of the novels The Body in the Clouds and The Railwayman’s Wife, which was honored with the Colin Roderick Award by the Foundation for Australian Literary Studies and longlisted for the Miles Franklin Literary Award, the most prestigious literary prize in Australia, among numerous other accolades. She has also written four nonfiction books. She lives in Brisbane, Australia.
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Book

Published 2017-11-28 by Atria

Book

Published 2017-11-28 by Atria

Comments

A book that overflows with gratitude for the hard, beautiful things of this world, and for the saving worlds of our imagination.

was deeply touched by this graceful novel, with its unflinching approach to reality and its gentle undercurrents of sadness, nostalgia and hope. It is a highly recommended read for fans of literary fiction and Hay’s own award-winning The Railwayman’s Wife.

This a beautifully written, important, quiet gem of a novel that takes hold of you and wends its way into your psyche... Read more...

Hay's perceptive prose illuminates both Elsie's and Lucy's lives, resulting in a rich dual character study that spans generations. Read more...

USA TODAY featured A Hundred Small Lessons in their "New & Noteworthy" this week. **Feat ran in a handful of regional newspapers as well. Read more...

If you haven't read anything by Ashley Hay, you are in for a treat: her language is lyrical, the lives she creates are authentic, her words are a delight to read. This is another delightful book from a very talented writer.

A reflective, mystical meditation on interconnectedness and shared experiences. With parallel narratives and quietly evocative prose, Ashley Hay unfolds the similarities between two women of different generations, alongside their shifts in identities and expectations, as they grow as mothers amid the familiar questions, decisions and insecurities.

Ashley Hay has written a book about two average moms with extraordinary observations about the mundane. However, there are elements of space and the universe: We might live small lives, but we are a part of something immense and beautiful. Hay's writing style is lyrical (I love her voice), and her plot is perfectly paced and interesting. Read more...

...Through the richly intertwined narratives of two ordinary, extraordinary women, Ashley Hay uses her "lyrical prose, poetic dialogue, and stunning imagery" (RTmagazine) to weave an intricate, bighearted story of what it is to be human. Read more...

Readers who loved the quiet introspection of Anita Shreve's The Pilot's Wife and Elizabeth Strout's Olive Kitteridge will enjoy the detailed emotional journeys of Hay's characters. Their stories will linger long after the final page is turned.

Hay truly encapsulates how our lives are interwoven. We are sent on a journey through the decades as small events and echoes of memories overlap, intersect and suddenly converge into a beautiful portrait spanning the past, present and future. Every word has a purpose and resonates like they were crafted for each reader. A Hundred Small Lessons is a light-hearted read with emotional undercurrents. Readers will fall in love with the vivid landscapes of Brisbane and the impeccable, lyrical language that seeps from the pages.

BookPage selects A Hundred Small Lessons as a Top Pick: "...engrossing and insightful... A lyrically written portrayal of the lives of two women tied together by memories and the house they share, A Hundred Small Lessons is sure to be enjoyed by readers of Kate Morton, another Brisbane author. Read more...

A Hundred Small Lessons explores notions of home, family, identity, creativity, aging and our relationship with cities and the natural world.. Hay explores the ways in which we inhabit spaces: building homes and filling them with our possessions, dreams, regrets, fears and secrets. This graceful novel, with its unflinching approach to reality and its gentle undercurrents of sadness, nostalgia and hope, is a highly recommended read for fans of literary fiction.

If home is where the heart is, when does a house become a home or, conversely, stop being one? Two women struggle to find the answer. Elsie's aging memories give the book a timeless sense of marriage and motherhood and perhaps a flicker of what Lucy may find in her future. The home that Elsie must give up with regret, Lucy must learn to love. This is typical of Hay who slowly weaves a tale of past and present lives, exploring the sense that the gap between the two women is not impervious to sensitive souls. Both Elsie and Lucy are finely and sympathetically drawn, and their lives highlight issues that affect many women. A cerebral tale, slow-moving but profound. Read more...

[Hay's] intricately layered story, bolstered by perspectives of an old mother and a young one, tackles the thorny questions of what it means to become a parent and how it feels to be no longer needed as one. Lyrical and tenderhearted, this will delight fans of Liane Moriarty and Kate Hewitt.