A stunning novel crackling with historical insight.
In Burke’s historical novel, a gossip columnist harboring a dangerous family secret struggles to counter pervasive propaganda in Nazi-era Germany.
In 1929, when Bella is first made a junior gossip columnist at the Vosstiche Zeitung newspaper, she is humiliated by the frivolity of the assignment, but she quickly decides that “gossip is the real news!” She longs to write about the bottomless prurience of the Nazis in the “sexual circus” that Berlin has become, their sexual perversions thinly veiled by a posture of moral righteousness. However, Josef Goebbels, the Nazis’ Minister of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda, controls all public communication. Bella is reduced to writing in code, employing “varying levels of irony” (“unfortunate events meant a bloody rampage by Nazi thugs”). Meanwhile, her impossibly beautiful younger sister, Karin, a pornographic actress, unfortunately catches Goebbels’ eye. Once Bella’s esoteric sardonicism is eventually detected and she is dismissed from her job, she disappears into the underground and devotes herself to exposing Goebbels as an insatiable sexual deviant in a small act of political defiance—and possibly as a means to protect her sister. Bella also guards a perilous secret: Her grandmother was a Jew, a fact that, if discovered, could mean the end of her entire family. In this engrossing novel, Burke brings to vivid life the “desolation of the years” following World War I and the sexual licentiousness that came to characterize Berlin. This provided ample opportunities for manufactured moral indignation; Goebbels, a “misshapen, bulbous-eyed, lecher” is a perfect exemplar of this duplicity, an amoral monster charged with shaping the German soul through cinema. The weakest part of this captivating tale is the author’s depiction of Karin, who never seems like a fully realized human being. However, the work as a whole is dramatically absorbing and truly eye-opening; the author’s research into the Nazis’ perversions, as well as their intramural disputes over power, is impeccable. Burke manages, with impressive literary artistry, to shed some light on a historical conundrum: How did such unabashed savagery spring from such a famously refined national culture?
A stunning novel crackling with historical insight.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: -
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2025
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
An affecting portrait of a prickly woman.
A lifetime’s worth of letters combine to portray a singular character.
Sybil Van Antwerp, a cantankerous but exceedingly well-mannered septuagenarian, is the titular correspondent in Evans’ debut novel. Sybil has retired from a beloved job as chief clerk to a judge with whom she had previously been in private legal practice. She is the divorced mother of two living adult children and one who died when he was 8. She is a reader of novels, a gardener, and a keen observer of human nature. But the most distinguishing thing about Sybil is her lifelong practice of letter writing. As advancing vision problems threaten Sybil’s carefully constructed way of life—in which letters take the place of personal contact and engagement—she must reckon with unaddressed issues from her past that threaten the house of cards (letters, really) she has built around herself. Sybil’s relationships are gradually revealed in the series of letters sent to and received from, among others, her brother, sister-in-law, children, former work associates, and, intriguingly, literary icons including Joan Didion and Larry McMurtry. Perhaps most affecting is the series of missives Sybil writes but never mails to a shadowy figure from her past. Thoughtful musings on the value and immortal quality of letters and the written word populate one of Sybil’s notes to a young correspondent while other messages are laugh-out-loud funny, tinged with her characteristic blunt tartness. Evans has created a brusque and quirky yet endearing main character with no shortage of opinions and advice for others but who fails to excavate the knotty difficulties of her own life. As Sybil grows into a delayed self-awareness, her letters serve as a chronicle of fitful growth.
An affecting portrait of a prickly woman.Pub Date: May 6, 2025
ISBN: 9780593798430
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: Feb. 15, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2025
A dark and twisty look at just how far one woman is willing to go to find inspiration.
A struggling writer finds an unexpected muse when a mysterious man shows up at her cabin.
Petra Rose used to pump out a bestselling book every six months, but then the adaptation happened—that is, the disastrous film adaptation of her most famous book. The movie changed the book’s storyline so egregiously that fans couldn’t forgive her, and the ensuing harassment sent Petra into hiding and gave her a serious case of writer’s block. Petra’s one hope is her solo writing retreat at a remote cabin, where she can escape the distractions of real life and focus on her next book, a story about a woman having an affair with a cop. When officer Nathaniel Saint shows up at her cabin door, inspiration comes flooding back. Much like the character from Petra’s book, Saint is married, and he’s willing to be Petra’s muse, helping her get into her characters’ heads. Petra’s book is practically writing itself, but is the game she’s playing a little too dangerous? Does she know when to stop—and, more importantly, is Saint willing to stop? Hoover is no stranger to controversial movie adaptations and internet backlash, but she clarifies in a note to readers that she’s “just a writer writing about a writer” and that no further connections to her own life are contained in these pages—which is a good thing, because the book takes some horrifying twists and turns. Petra finds herself inexplicably attracted to Saint, even as she describes him as “such an asshole,” and her feelings for him veer between love and hate. The novel serves as a meta commentary on the dark romance genre—as Petra puts it, “Even though, as readers, we wouldn’t want to live out some of the fantasies we read about, it doesn’t mean we don’t enjoy reading those things.”
A dark and twisty look at just how far one woman is willing to go to find inspiration.Pub Date: Jan. 13, 2026
ISBN: 9781662539374
Page Count: -
Publisher: Montlake
Review Posted Online: Sept. 27, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2025
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