An engrossing peek into a difficult but admirably undaunted life.
A Filipino woman is widowed and left to care for her nine children in Morgan’s historical novel.
In 1928, Maxima and Eugenio Agbay enjoy a blessed life in Sambat, a quiet village in the Philippines. They own an increasingly successful embroidery business, fulfilling merchants’ orders in both Manila and the United States. Not content with being a traditional housewife, Maxima helps her husband, overseeing the 20 workers manufacturing their fashionable designs. The happy trajectory of their lives is tragically disrupted when Eugenio is waylaid by an acute case of appendicitis and dies on the operating table. Suddenly, Maxima is all alone only days before Christmas, solely responsible for her brood of nine children, the youngest of whom is only 2 years old. In this historically astute narrative, Maxima rises to the challenge before her—she refuses to distribute her kids across extended family, keeping the tribe intact, and she takes over Eugenio’s firm. Immersed in a “male-oriented business community,” Maxima initially conceals the fact of her widowhood, afraid she’ll appear vulnerable to the merchants who owe her money (“Nobody in Manila suspected anything or asked for her husband. She acted confidently and avoided empty chatter”). Morgan tracks Maxima’s extraordinary maturation as a business woman—she eventually becomes an accomplished landowner—through the dark days of the Great Depression and the outbreak of World War II. The plot is based on the true story of the author’s maternal grandmother, and the novel has an air of both personal and historical verisimilitude; for all of her dramatic daring, Maxima is a fully realized character and instantly relatable. The paroxysms suffered by the Philippines during World War II, which plunged the nation into existential crisis, are portrayed by Morgan with exactitude and dramatic power. This is an inspiriting tale, and a historically fascinating one as well.
An engrossing peek into a difficult but admirably undaunted life.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: -
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: Nov. 27, 2024
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
An existential crisis that steps on its own final moments.
With only a month left until the world ends due to a swiftly approaching black hole, Don and Rodney, a retired gay couple, road-trip from Maine to Washington to spend their final days with their son.
After reports that a planet-swallowing black hole is making its way toward Earth, Rodney and Don—who have been together for 40 years and survived everything from homophobia to the HIV crisis—decide to pack their belongings into an RV, say goodbye to their neighbors, and travel from Camden, Maine, to Washington to uphold a promise to spend their final days with their son. They can’t wait any longer, since there’s already chaos around the country: “Military vehicles in the streets of most cities and towns. Looting, rioting, the burning of cars and buildings and people, all of it had already happened.” As they make their way west across the country, they encounter fellow travelers ranging from close-knit families to free-spirited hippies, some of whom have come to terms with the impending end of the world and others who haven’t. While the story seems to be asking readers what they would do if they had 30 days left to live, and reflects on what different kinds of acceptance might look like in the face of unavoidable tragedy, it loses some of its poignancy in a series of thinly padded monologues about the meaning of life. Clearly intended to pack an emotional punch, it’s failed by an abrupt ending, and the way the journey’s mystery—which will be obvious to many readers—is revealed by an info dump in the last chapter.
An existential crisis that steps on its own final moments.Pub Date: April 28, 2026
ISBN: 9781250881236
Page Count: 176
Publisher: Tor
Review Posted Online: March 9, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2026
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