An affecting saga of blood ties that, despite being severed, still bind.
Twins separated at birth endure knockabout boyhoods and war while trying to piece together their shattered families in Henry’s novel.
Henry’s tale centers on Billy Jones, a British soldier wounded in France near the end of World War II. Returning to his hometown of Blackmoor, he befriends Irene Pilkington, an old woman who knew his deceased mother, Mary, and tells him that he has an identical twin brother, Thomas, who was given to an orphanage at birth. The narrative then shifts to Mary’s experiences as a spirited young woman. During the summer of 1920 on the Channel Island of Jersey, she falls in love with the dashing Ted Hart, but when she becomes pregnant, Ted reveals that he is married and abandons her. Pressured by her father into giving up Thomas, she insists on keeping Billy after giving the infants matching thumb tattoos to help them identify each other in the future. The narrative pivots again to follow Thomas through a grim orphanage upbringing during which he is called “Boy 14,” made to sleep on a straw mattress reeking of urine, and caned in a “Punishment Circle” if he talks or sniffles. As a young man, he moves to Jersey in 1939 and spends more grim years under German occupation. He embarks upon a quest to track down people from his past, known and unknown. Henry’s yarn is a busy melodrama, with evocative period depictions of the prewar plights of unwed mothers and orphans that hinge on convenient coincidences, like Billy’s habit of bumping into strangers, like Irene, who just happen to have key information about mysterious events in his life. But it has a sure feel for the pain and sadness of families broken and loved ones lost, conveyed in understated yet moving prose, as when Irene speaks of her son James and her grandson Walter going off to war: “They were both killed within a week of each other. Probably better that way—get it all over with in one fell swoop as it were, don’t you think?” The result is an absorbing picaresque with real pathos.
An affecting saga of blood ties that, despite being severed, still bind.Pub Date: Aug. 12, 2022
ISBN: 9781778156700
Page Count: 336
Publisher: FriesenPress
Review Posted Online: Feb. 10, 2023
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
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
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