A Hundred Small Lessons: A Novel

Ashley Hay

Nov 2017 · Sold by Simon and Schuster

About this ebook

Through the richly intertwined narratives of two women from different generations, Ashley Hay, known for her “elegant prose, which draws warm and textured portraits as it celebrates the web of human stories” (New York Times Book Review) weaves an intricate, bighearted tale of the many small decisions—the invisible moments—that come to make a life.

“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” (Library Journal).

When Elsie Gormley falls and is forced to leave her Brisbane home of sixty-two years, Lucy Kiss and her family move in, eager to make the house their own. Still, Lucy can’t help but feel that she’s unwittingly stumbled into an entirely new life—new house, new city, new baby—and she struggles to navigate the journey from adventurous lover to young parent.

In her nearby nursing facility, Elsie traces the years she spent in her beloved house, where she too transformed from a naïve newlywed into a wife and mother, and eventually, a widow. Gradually, the boundary between present and past becomes more porous for her, and for Lucy—because the house has secrets of its own, and its rooms seem to share with Lucy memories from Elsie’s life.

Luminous and deeply affecting, A Hundred Small Lessons is a “lyrically written portrayal” (BookPage, Top Pick) of what it means to be human, and how a place can transform who we are. It’s about a house that becomes much more than a home, and the shifting identities of mother and daughter; father and son. Above all else, this is a story of the surprising and miraculous ways that our lives intersect with those who have come before us, and those who follow.

Ratings and reviews

AudioBook Review: Stars: Overall 4 Narration 4 Story 4.5 If you are expecting a book full of angst and huge, dramatic revelations, this is not the book for you. This is a story of two women and the intersection of their lives with the help of one house. Elsie had lived in her home for sixty years: the centerpiece of much of her life, laden with memories and lavished with care and all those tiny touches that makes your house your home. When a fall sends her to hospital, and her son has arranged for the sale of her home, that chapter in her little house has come to an end, and she is reconciling her life now with what it had been: the familiarity, comfort, memories, and independence that are now forever changed in her new circumstance. New to the little Brisbane house is Lucy and her husband and young son, Tom. Just having the sense of Elsie and her family around her in tiny touches left behind brings her some comfort and confidence. A family was raised here successfully – there is no reason she shouldn’t have a similar outcome. Through individual moments, Elsie recounts her life and struggles often as Lucy is in the thick of things: the one thing helping Lucy along is the thought of Elsie, the sense of her that she finds in every room when she quietens and listens for her. A lovely sense of ‘memory keeping’ in the house, one that Lucy connects to almost instantly, and allows herself to wonder about those who were there first. The small pieces left behind serve as guideposts for Lucy as she struggles with her husband’s remove frequent absences, little Tom’s into-everything toddler self, and her own feelings of a marriage not quite working, at least not as she hoped it would. Unprepared for the isolation and changes that the move and a child would bring to their marriage, it’s Elsie that becomes Lucy’s best friend in absentia, her guidepost and her teacher as she learns to navigate marriage, motherhood and all of the challenges, big and small, that happen in a life. Narration for this story is provided by Fiona Hardingham, a performance that not only carries the correct accent but has a smoothness in delivery that carries the story softly forward. Never over-reaching for emotion or a moment, Hardingham allows the story to take wing, occasional flights of fancy and moments of harsh reality all treated with the deference and respect needed and required by the writing. A lovely listen that transports to the moment and place, and allows the story to proceed at a pace that allows complete absorption. A wonderful story that is unlike others I have read, but completely refreshing in the unique moments, flights of fancy and harder truths faced all while being surprisingly angst-free, just detailing lives and their points of parallel and intersection in ways that feel natural and plausible. I received an AudioBook copy of the title from Simon and Schuster Audio for purpose of honest review. I was not compensated for this review: all conclusions are my own responsibility.

About the author

Ashley Hay is the internationally acclaimed author of the novels A Hundred Small Lessons, 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.