An engrossing family tale that balances poignant reflections with 19th-century action.
A historical novel focuses on an Irish immigrant family’s fragile and combustible American dream.
In Flower’s tale, Irish farmer Robert Gillian loses his two youngest children during the blight in Ireland and starts afresh in New York City. A scene depicting his family’s suffering during the Irish famine cuts to his imprisonment in a New York jailhouse in 1869. The book unravels the threads leading up to Gillian’s grim fate, showing the dangerous lengths he goes to as the protector and provider of his family. Gillian becomes a fireman for “White Flag” Engine Company Five, making friends with the recently freed African American Clancy and the Native American Katonah. Gillian’s drunk and complacent foreman, Brian Denny, appears wealthy despite the poor status of the company. Gillian is haunted by a strange figure with a terrifically scarred visage, “a man and bug at once!”—John Mahon. Through Denny and Mahon, Gillian eventually becomes a “fire marker man,” putting down plaques for the Chelsea Surety Company at its insured buildings—while also carrying out more sinister activities for the business. His wife, Aileen, and daughter, Mary, tackle the difficulties of working at an exhausting textile company, while his son, Patrick, fends off bullies and learns to become a druggist. Gillian gets wrapped up in the complexities of arson, firefighting, the Civil War, and individual quests for revenge. A powerful family narrative of tragedy and hope emerges in Flower’s novel along with the age-old American question: How can the exploited pull themselves up from their bootstraps without exploiting others? When Gillian becomes wealthy enough to buy a mirror, he is forced to look at himself and question his own authenticity and moral convictions. Despite occasional obscurities regarding 1800s fire safety systems in the United States, the novel weaves an engaging story with strong characterizations. The book’s absorbing themes—questions of justice and morality in building wealth—are pressingly relevant today.
An engrossing family tale that balances poignant reflections with 19th-century action.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: 979-8-9867705-0-5
Page Count: 332
Publisher: Self
Review Posted Online: Nov. 15, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2023
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
PERSPECTIVES
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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