If we can do nothing else for these writers, may we reward their courage and talent with a wide and caring audience.
A selection of chilling short fiction from 18 Afghan women writers, translated from Pashto and Dari.
"Short stories lend themselves to fractured, pressured environments," writes Lucy Hannah in the informative afterword to this heartbreaking and heartfelt anthology, a product of the Untold Narratives project of which Hannah is founder and co-director. Calls for pieces went out in 2019 and 2021, reaching into even rural parts of Afghanistan, and hundreds of stories made their ways to the editors and translators—in at least one case, having been written by hand, photographed, and passed through a chain of people using WhatsApp. The writers involved supported each other with an online diary through the ensuing fall of Kabul and the Taliban takeover; it's bewildering to imagine that their lives are now even more embattled than what is portrayed here. That said, the stories range widely. Several tell of oppressive marital and familial customs that condemn women in conditions of emotional torture. Several describe the terror of daily life, with bombs falling and lives ending randomly all around. The newscaster reads the news, the teacher drives to the school, the student goes to find her friend, with no confidence that any of them will live through the day. In at least one story, "An Imprint on the Wall" by Masouma Kawsari, translated by Parwana Fayyaz, the protagonist has already been blown up. In "My Pillow's Journey of Eleven Thousand, Eight Hundred, and Seventy-Six Kilometers" by Farangis Elyassi, translated by Zubair Popalzai, a family flees this nightmare only to be miserable in "the long silence of America." Two of the most violent stories—one describing a suicide bombing at a wedding, one an attack on a girls school—are followed by notes explaining that they are inspired by true events and dedicated to their victims. One of the only happy endings in the book occurs when the widow of a murdered man succeeds in refusing to be forced to marry her brother-in-law and finds a way, against all odds, to support herself selling homemade cookies. The sacrifices people make for one other and the unbreakable attachment people have to home, no matter what hell that home may host, are repeated notes that echo in the heart.
If we can do nothing else for these writers, may we reward their courage and talent with a wide and caring audience.Pub Date: Oct. 18, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-5387-2682-2
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Review Posted Online: Sept. 27, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2022
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
The best-selling author of tearjerkers like Angel Falls (2000) serves up yet another mountain of mush, topped off with...
Talk-show queen takes tumble as millions jeer.
Nora Bridges is a wildly popular radio spokesperson for family-first virtues, but her loyal listeners don't know that she walked out on her husband and teenaged daughters years ago and didn't look back. Now that a former lover has sold racy pix of naked Nora and horny himself to a national tabloid, her estranged daughter Ruby, an unsuccessful stand-up comic in Los Angeles, has been approached to pen a tell-all. Greedy for the fat fee she's been promised, Ruby agrees and heads for the San Juan Islands, eager to get reacquainted with the mom she plans to betray. Once in the family homestead, nasty Ruby alternately sulks and glares at her mother, who is temporarily wheelchair-bound as a result of a post-scandal car crash. Uncaring, Ruby begins writing her side of the story when she's not strolling on the beach with former sweetheart Dean Sloan, the son of wealthy socialites who basically ignored him and his gay brother Eric. Eric, now dying of cancer and also in a wheelchair, has returned to the island. This dismal threesome catch up on old times, recalling their childhood idylls on the island. After Ruby's perfect big sister Caroline shows up, there's another round of heartfelt talk. Nora gradually reveals the truth about her unloving husband and her late father's alcoholism, which led her to seek the approval of others at the cost of her own peace of mind. And so on. Ruby is aghast to discover that she doesn't know everything after all, but Dean offers her subdued comfort. Happy endings await almost everyone—except for readers of this nobly preachy snifflefest.
The best-selling author of tearjerkers like Angel Falls (2000) serves up yet another mountain of mush, topped off with syrupy platitudes about life and love.Pub Date: March 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-609-60737-5
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2001
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