A Small Crowd of Strangers, Joanna Rose
A Small Crowd of Strangers, Joanna Rose
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A Small Crowd of Strangers

Author: Joanna Rose

Narrator: Mia Gaskin

Unabridged: 15 hr 16 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 09/12/2020

Categories: Fiction

Synopsis

How does a librarian from New Jersey end up in a convenience store on Vancouver Island in the middle of the night, playing Bible Scrabble with a Korean physicist and a drunk priest? She gets married to the wrong man for starters—she didn’t know he was “that kind of Catholic”—and ends up in St. Cloud, Minnesota. She gets a job in a New Age bookstore, wanders toward Buddhism without realizing it, and acquires a dog. Things get complicated after that. Pattianne Anthony is less a thinker than a dreamer, and she finds out the hard way that she doesn’t want a husband, much less a baby, and that getting out of a marriage is a lot harder than getting into it, especially when the landscape of the west becomes the voice of reason. A Small Crowd of Strangers, Joanna Rose’s second novel, is part love story, part slightly sideways spiritual journey.

About Joanna Rose

Joanna Rose is the author of the award-winning novel Little Miss Strange, which earned the Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association Award. Her essay “That Thing With Feathers” was cited as Notable in 2015 Best American Essays and her other work has appeared in numerous publications. She is an Atheneum Fellow in Poetry, co-hosts the prose critique group Pinewood Table, and works with youth through Literary Arts’ Writers in the Schools and with Young Musicians & Artists.

About Mia Gaskin

Mia Gaskin, originally from Southern California, earned a degree in theater from UC San Diego, and has performed professionally both on stage as well as in independent film. She now lives in Oregon with her husband and very handsome Golden Retriever and has narrated over one hundred titles from her state-of-the-art home studio.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Helen on November 09, 2020

Joanna Rose’s second novel, A Small Crowd of Strangers, is the perfect choice to read now, at a time when it can be hard to hang onto compassion and hope. Rose has compassion for her flawed heroine, Pattianne Anthony, and the strangers she meets as she tries to figure out where home is. Rose’s sense......more

Goodreads review by Deborah on November 09, 2020

I enjoyed the depiction of a marital relationship that wasn't what it initially seemed. Ms Rose did an excellent job of showing us the evolution of this relationship and of the main character in the book.......more

Goodreads review by David on March 30, 2021

I am torn over my reaction to this book. I gave it 2 stars but on another day I might give it 5. I found the novel exceptionally well written and compelling. But the problem is with the main character, who I saw as an unbelievably self absorbed individual who is driven by her emotions and feelings a......more

Goodreads review by Aimee on December 24, 2020

Because of all the positive reviews for A Small Crowd of Strangers, I really tried to like this book, but the characters were so bland and off-putting that I had little interest in following their journeys of self-discovery. I also thought the conversations were lacking and I just could not immerse......more

Goodreads review by Kristin on December 05, 2020

My first comment is, there’s a lot going on here! Overall, it’s a grownup coming-of-age story, an adult character discovering her own skin and choosing to move into it, even though it means a complete change of course. Pattianne learns what she is not, then she enters a phase of finding out what she......more

Quotes

“An important meditation on how our supposed missteps often create as much life as they destroy, Pattianne’s final destination rewards the reader as much as it does the character.” Michelle Ruiz Keil, author of All of Us With Wings

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