diff --git a/CHANGES.txt b/CHANGES.txt
index d5d692f3ea8..f776ad27b0f 100644
--- a/CHANGES.txt
+++ b/CHANGES.txt
@@ -62,6 +62,9 @@ Trunk (unreleased changes)
     HADOOP-6386. NameNode's HttpServer can't instantiate InetSocketAddress:
     IllegalArgumentException is thrown (cos)
 
+    HADOOP-6254. Slow reads cause s3n to fail with SocketTimeoutException.
+    (Andrew Hitchcock via tomwhite)
+
 Release 0.21.0 - Unreleased
 
   INCOMPATIBLE CHANGES
diff --git a/src/java/org/apache/hadoop/fs/s3native/NativeS3FileSystem.java b/src/java/org/apache/hadoop/fs/s3native/NativeS3FileSystem.java
index ea5a23b3b25..8898c889ae8 100644
--- a/src/java/org/apache/hadoop/fs/s3native/NativeS3FileSystem.java
+++ b/src/java/org/apache/hadoop/fs/s3native/NativeS3FileSystem.java
@@ -86,20 +86,31 @@ public class NativeS3FileSystem extends FileSystem {
   static final String PATH_DELIMITER = Path.SEPARATOR;
   private static final int S3_MAX_LISTING_LENGTH = 1000;
   
-  private class NativeS3FsInputStream extends FSInputStream {
+  static class NativeS3FsInputStream extends FSInputStream {
     
+    private NativeFileSystemStore store;
+    private Statistics statistics;
     private InputStream in;
     private final String key;
     private long pos = 0;
     
-    public NativeS3FsInputStream(InputStream in, String key) {
+    public NativeS3FsInputStream(NativeFileSystemStore store, Statistics statistics, InputStream in, String key) {
+      this.store = store;
+      this.statistics = statistics;
       this.in = in;
       this.key = key;
     }
     
     @Override
     public synchronized int read() throws IOException {
-      int result = in.read();
+      int result = -1;
+      try {
+        result = in.read();
+      } catch (IOException e) {
+        LOG.info("Received IOException while reading '" + key + "', attempting to reopen.");
+        seek(pos);
+        result = in.read();
+      } 
       if (result != -1) {
         pos++;
       }
@@ -112,7 +123,14 @@ public class NativeS3FileSystem extends FileSystem {
     public synchronized int read(byte[] b, int off, int len)
       throws IOException {
       
-      int result = in.read(b, off, len);
+      int result = -1;
+      try {
+        result = in.read(b, off, len);
+      } catch (IOException e) {
+        LOG.info("Received IOException while reading '" + key + "', attempting to reopen.");
+        seek(pos);
+        result = in.read(b, off, len);
+      }
       if (result > 0) {
         pos += result;
       }
@@ -514,7 +532,7 @@ public class NativeS3FileSystem extends FileSystem {
     Path absolutePath = makeAbsolute(f);
     String key = pathToKey(absolutePath);
     return new FSDataInputStream(new BufferedFSInputStream(
-        new NativeS3FsInputStream(store.retrieve(key), key), bufferSize));
+        new NativeS3FsInputStream(store, statistics, store.retrieve(key), key), bufferSize));
   }
   
   // rename() and delete() use this method to ensure that the parent directory
diff --git a/src/test/core/org/apache/hadoop/fs/s3native/NativeS3FileSystemContractBaseTest.java b/src/test/core/org/apache/hadoop/fs/s3native/NativeS3FileSystemContractBaseTest.java
index 337eeaba5bb..8396c9e73dc 100644
--- a/src/test/core/org/apache/hadoop/fs/s3native/NativeS3FileSystemContractBaseTest.java
+++ b/src/test/core/org/apache/hadoop/fs/s3native/NativeS3FileSystemContractBaseTest.java
@@ -19,12 +19,14 @@
 package org.apache.hadoop.fs.s3native;
 
 import java.io.IOException;
+import java.io.InputStream;
 import java.net.URI;
 
 import org.apache.hadoop.conf.Configuration;
 import org.apache.hadoop.fs.FileStatus;
 import org.apache.hadoop.fs.FileSystemContractBaseTest;
 import org.apache.hadoop.fs.Path;
+import org.apache.hadoop.fs.s3native.NativeS3FileSystem.NativeS3FsInputStream;
 
 public abstract class NativeS3FileSystemContractBaseTest
   extends FileSystemContractBaseTest {
@@ -148,5 +150,79 @@ public abstract class NativeS3FileSystemContractBaseTest
     assertEquals("Double default block size", newBlockSize,
     fs.getFileStatus(file).getBlockSize());
   }
+  
+  public void testRetryOnIoException() throws Exception {
+    class TestInputStream extends InputStream {
+      boolean shouldThrow = false;
+      int throwCount = 0;
+      int pos = 0;
+      byte[] bytes;
+      
+      public TestInputStream() {
+        bytes = new byte[256];
+        for (int i = 0; i < 256; i++) {
+          bytes[i] = (byte)i;
+        }
+      }
+      
+      @Override
+      public int read() throws IOException {
+        shouldThrow = !shouldThrow;
+        if (shouldThrow) {
+          throwCount++;
+          throw new IOException();
+        }
+        return pos++;
+      }
+      
+      @Override
+      public int read(byte[] b, int off, int len) throws IOException {
+        shouldThrow = !shouldThrow;
+        if (shouldThrow) {
+          throwCount++;
+          throw new IOException();
+        }
+        
+        int sizeToRead = Math.min(len, 256 - pos);
+        for (int i = 0; i < sizeToRead; i++) {
+          b[i] = bytes[pos + i];
+        }
+        pos += sizeToRead;
+        return sizeToRead;
+      }
+    }
+    
+    final InputStream is = new TestInputStream();
+    
+    class MockNativeFileSystemStore extends Jets3tNativeFileSystemStore {
+      @Override
+      public InputStream retrieve(String key, long byteRangeStart) throws IOException {
+        return is;
+      }
+    }
+    
+    NativeS3FsInputStream stream = new NativeS3FsInputStream(new MockNativeFileSystemStore(), null, is, "");
+    
+    // Test reading methods.
+    byte[] result = new byte[256];
+    for (int i = 0; i < 128; i++) {
+      result[i] = (byte)stream.read();
+    }
+    for (int i = 128; i < 256; i += 8) {
+      byte[] temp = new byte[8];
+      int read = stream.read(temp, 0, 8);
+      assertEquals(8, read);
+      System.arraycopy(temp, 0, result, i, 8);
+    }
+    
+    // Assert correct
+    for (int i = 0; i < 256; i++) {
+      assertEquals((byte)i, result[i]);
+    }
+    
+    // Test to make sure the throw path was exercised.
+    // 144 = 128 + (128 / 8)
+    assertEquals(144, ((TestInputStream)is).throwCount);
+  }
 
 }