A historically rigorous and emotionally riveting period piece.
Slager’s historical novel, largely set at the end of the 17th century, chronicles the tale of a whaling village on the western coast of the future United States, threatened by natural disaster.
In 1699, Dushuuw is a battle-hardened warrior in Wuh-uhch, where his father, Chahbuhť̓, is a powerful and revered whaling chief. At 19, he’s the youngestson in his family and grows up in the shadow of his 22-year-old brother, Q̓otsik, who’s established himself as a prodigious whaler who’s likely to succeed Chahbuhť̓ one day. Dushuuw’s position within the tribe is compromised when he catches a man, Wiikihbis, having sex with his wife, and kills him. The marriage is a strategic one, cementing an important alliance, so the political fallout is considerable. Moreover, the man he killed was a whaler on Q̓otsik’s canoe, and now he must take his place—a job he doesn’t relish, and for which he possesses little natural talent; it’s a predicament that Slager portrays with great psychological subtlety and dramatic power. Meanwhile, Amuun’ax̱sum, the daughter of another whaling chief,is taken hostage by an invading tribe after they murder her mother and father. She’s later enslaved by Eekbis, the shaman of Dushuuw’s tribe. She longs to recapture the nobility that she now must hide to stay alive. Amuun’ax̱sum and Dushuuw fall in love, but their prospects for happiness seem dim, given the social expanse that separates them. Also, a disastrous earthquake and tsunami threatens to end their lives before they can make a bid for romantic bliss.
Slager’s novel is based on the Makah tribe, who live in the Cape Flattery area of what is now Washington state, and she brings the everyday lives and customs of its people into vivid relief. The natural disaster that waylaid the tribe is a real one, with her research into it and scholarly command of all the relevant source material nothing short of magisterial. Readers get a remarkable glimpse into a whaling community before European contact. However, this book is, first and foremost, a novel, and it tells an engrossing story. Both the principal characters are portrayed with notable nuance, and their budding relationship is both plausible and moving. Some people in Dushuuw’s tribe wonder if he’s more trouble than he’s worth, due to his taste for violence: “A man who takes that much human life—perhaps the spirit of the whale cringes from it, you see?” Dushuuw hears an elderly man say. “Is there really a way to get rid of so much human stench, such darkness of heart?” Amuun’ax̱sum also proves to be a compelling character, and Slager depicts the burden of her grief—over the loss of her family, and of her noble identity—with affecting complexity: “She wanted to fill a river with tears, and shoot her fear to the moon. She wanted a bench, not a mat. To own things, not hide them. A home. A voice. A name—to be known.”
A historically rigorous and emotionally riveting period piece.Pub Date: May 20, 2025
ISBN: 9798991543514
Page Count: 520
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: April 4, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 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
SEEN & HEARD
A pleasant if not entirely convincing tribute to the power of art.
A French art historian’s English-language fiction debut combines the story of a loving relationship between a grandfather and granddaughter with an enlightening discussion of art.
One day, when 10-year-old Mona removes the necklace given to her by her now-dead grandmother, she experiences a frightening, hour-long bout of blindness. Her parents take her to the doctor, who gives her a variety of tests and also advises that she see a psychiatrist. Her grandfather Henry tells her parents that he will take care of that assignment, but instead, he takes Mona on weekly visits to either the Louvre, the Musée d’Orsay, or the Centre Pompidou, where each week they study a single work of art, gazing at it deeply and then discussing its impact and history and the biography of its maker. For the reader’s benefit, Schlesser also describes each of the works in scrupulous detail. As the year goes on, Mona faces the usual challenges of elementary school life and the experiences of being an only child, and slowly begins to understand the causes of her temporary blindness. Primarily an amble through a few dozen of Schlesser’s favorite works of art—some well known and others less so, from Botticelli and da Vinci through Basquiat and Bourgeois—the novel would probably benefit from being read at a leisurely pace. While the dialogue between Henry and the preternaturally patient and precocious Mona sometimes strains credulity, readers who don’t have easy access to the museums of Paris may enjoy this vicarious trip in the company of a guide who focuses equally on that which can be seen and the context that can’t be. Come for the novel, stay for the introductory art history course.
A pleasant if not entirely convincing tribute to the power of art.Pub Date: Aug. 26, 2025
ISBN: 9798889661115
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Europa Editions
Review Posted Online: June 7, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2025
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
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