Small Hotel

From the Pulitzer Prize–winning author comes this “fascinating . . . intense portrayal of the collapse of a marriage . . . [that] delivers a surprising charge” (Jane Smiley, The Washington Post).

An O, The Oprah Magazine “Summer Reading List” pick

Set in contemporary New Orleans but working its way back in time, A Small Hotel chronicles the relationship between Michael and Kelly Hays, who have decided to separate after twenty-four years of marriage. The book begins on the day that the Hays are to finalize their divorce. Kelly is due to be in court, but instead she drives from her home in Pensacola, Florida, across the panhandle to New Orleans. There she checks into Room 303 at the Olivier House in the city’s French Quarter—the hotel where she and Michael fell in love some twenty-five years earlier. She now finds herself about to make a decision that will forever affect her, Michael, and their nineteen-year-old daughter, Samantha.

“From each spouse’s point of view we witness the feelings that didn’t break the surface at the time, but never went away.” —The New York Times

“Intelligent, deeply moving . . . A Small Hotel is a masterful story that will remind readers once again why Robert Olen Butler has been called ‘the best living American writer.’” —Fort Worth Star-Telegram