Pulitzer Prize-winner Robert Olen Butler's books have looked at topics
as considerable and diverse as hell, extraterrestrials, and Vietnam. His
acclaimed twelfth novel, A Small Hotel, chosen for O Magazine's
Summer Reading List, offers a more intimate scope as it chronicles the
complexities of a disintegrating relationship over the course of twenty
years.
Set in contemporary New Orleans but working its way back in time, A
Small Hotel follows the lives of Michael and Kelly Hays, a couple of the
brink of divorce. On the day the Hays are due in court to finalize their
separation, Kelly drives from her home in Pensacola and across the
panhandle to New Orleans. She checks into room 303 at the Olivier House
in the city's French Quarter--the hotel where she and Michael fell in
love, and where she must now contemplate a startling decision that will
hold devastating consequences for her family, including her
nineteen-year-old daughter. Butler masterfully weaves scenes of the
present with memories from the viewpoints of both Michael and
Kelly--scenes that span two decades, taking the reader back to critical
moments in the couple's relationship and revealing a passionate love
tragically undone by miscommunication and insecurity.
