diff --git a/src/calibre/ebooks/epub/fix/__init__.py b/src/calibre/ebooks/epub/fix/__init__.py
index 5bdbd7c7f6..3eae56484e 100644
--- a/src/calibre/ebooks/epub/fix/__init__.py
+++ b/src/calibre/ebooks/epub/fix/__init__.py
@@ -11,6 +11,14 @@ from calibre.customize import Plugin
 class InvalidEpub(ValueError):
     pass
 
+class ParseError(ValueError):
+
+    def __init__(self, name, desc):
+        self.name = name
+        self.desc = desc
+        ValueError.__init__(self,
+            _('Failed to parse: %s with error: %s')%(name, desc))
+
 class ePubFixer(Plugin):
 
     supported_platforms = ['windows', 'osx', 'linux']
diff --git a/src/calibre/ebooks/epub/fix/container.py b/src/calibre/ebooks/epub/fix/container.py
index b9af66d708..539d886312 100644
--- a/src/calibre/ebooks/epub/fix/container.py
+++ b/src/calibre/ebooks/epub/fix/container.py
@@ -8,8 +8,9 @@ __docformat__ = 'restructuredtext en'
 import os, posixpath, urllib, sys, re
 
 from lxml import etree
+from lxml.etree import XMLSyntaxError
 
-from calibre.ebooks.epub.fix import InvalidEpub
+from calibre.ebooks.epub.fix import InvalidEpub, ParseError
 from calibre import guess_type, prepare_string_for_xml
 from calibre.ebooks.chardet import xml_to_unicode
 from calibre.constants import iswindows
@@ -148,7 +149,10 @@ class Container(object):
             return self.cache[name]
         raw = self.get_raw(name)
         if name in self.mime_map:
-            raw = self._parse(raw, self.mime_map[name])
+            try:
+                raw = self._parse(raw, self.mime_map[name])
+            except XMLSyntaxError, err:
+                raise ParseError(name, unicode(err))
         self.cache[name] = raw
         return raw
 
diff --git a/src/calibre/ebooks/epub/fix/main.py b/src/calibre/ebooks/epub/fix/main.py
index 3f9ca260b3..fbfe80551d 100644
--- a/src/calibre/ebooks/epub/fix/main.py
+++ b/src/calibre/ebooks/epub/fix/main.py
@@ -14,6 +14,8 @@ from calibre.utils.zipfile import ZipFile
 from calibre.utils.logging import default_log
 from calibre.customize.ui import epub_fixers
 from calibre.ebooks.epub.fix.container import Container
+from calibre.ebooks.epub.fix import ParseError
+
 
 def option_parser():
     parser = OptionParser(usage=_(
@@ -50,7 +52,11 @@ def main(args=sys.argv):
         default_log.error(_('You must specify an epub file'))
         return
     epub = os.path.abspath(args[1])
-    run(epub, opts, default_log)
+    try:
+        run(epub, opts, default_log)
+    except ParseError, err:
+        default_log.error(unicode(err))
+        raise SystemExit(1)
 
 if __name__ == '__main__':
     main()