An absorbing tale for the patient reader.
A Dutch novel about loss, identity, and the lasting effects of war.
In 1922 in Flanders, four years after the end of the Great War, many wives still desperately seek their missing husbands. Noon Merckem has been kept in an asylum for four years, his name assigned to him by the doctors. Not physically injured, he has shell shock and has completely lost his memory. Several women try to claim him, but they cannot properly identify him. But Julienne Coppens correctly says he has a certain scar from an old accident, and against medical advice he is released into her care. She tells him his real name is Amand Stephaan Coppens, he’s the father of their two children, proprietor of a photography shop with his name in the window, and she has been waiting for him for eight years. Already her family is living on the margins: She breaks a rabbit’s neck in her backyard and cooks it up with prunes for supper, and she struggles to pay the rent. Quite an adjustment lies ahead: “She has him back and yet she doesn’t,” because he doesn’t remember her. At first, they are not physical, but eventually they enjoy the warmth of each other’s bodies in bed. “And weeks of outrageous happiness follow,” but it hardly lasts. She takes charge of his life and his well-being. And he “feels nothing, as if she’s gutted and skinned him and left nothing but an empty carcass.” More dramatically, he suffers tumultuous nightmares and once awakens in shock to realize he is nearly strangling her. He dreams of the battlefield, and tells her he vaguely remembers red flares, machine-gun fire, exploding shells, and being buried alive under a pile of dead bodies. But he does not trust these memories, and he begins to wonder if he can trust Julienne. This is a story about healing a soldier’s mind after surviving years of carnage, and it is about restoring mutual trust and love after so much has happened. Stylistic quirks may be problematic or not, according to readers’ tastes. It is almost 600 pages of run-on sentences with many including up to 100 words and 10 comma-separated clauses. And the author begins most paragraphs with “And.” And she buries all dialogue in the narrative.
An absorbing tale for the patient reader.Pub Date: May 13, 2025
ISBN: 9781954404328
Page Count: 576
Publisher: New Vessel Press
Review Posted Online: April 19, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2025
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
Have tissues ready as you read this. A small package will do.
A love story about a life of second chances.
In Nassau, in the Bahamas, casino detective Vincent LaPorta grills Alfie Logan, who’d come up a winner three times in a row at the roulette table and walked away with $2 million. “How did you do it?” asks the detective. Alfie calmly denies cheating. You wired all the money to a Gianna Rule, LaPorta says. Why? To explain, Alfie produces a composition book with the words “For the Boss, to Be Read Upon My Death” written on the cover. Read this for answers, Alfie suggests, calling it a love story. His mother had passed along to him a strange trait: He can say “Twice!” and go back to a specific time and place to have a do-over. But it only works once for any particular moment, and then he must live with the new consequences. He can only do this for himself and can’t prevent anyone from dying. Alfie regularly uses his power—failing to impress a girl the first time, he finds out more about her, goes back in time, and presto! She likes him. The premise is of course not credible—LaPorta doesn’t buy it either—but it’s intriguing. Most people would probably love to go back and unsay something. The story’s focus is on Alfie’s love for Gianna and whether it’s requited, unrequited, or both. In any case, he’s obsessed with her. He’s a good man, though, an intelligent person with ordinary human failings and a solid moral compass. Albom writes in a warm, easy style that transports the reader to a world of second chances and what-ifs, where spirituality lies close to the surface but never intrudes on the story. Though a cynic will call it sappy, anyone who is sick to their core from the daily news will enjoy this escape from reality.
Have tissues ready as you read this. A small package will do.Pub Date: Oct. 7, 2025
ISBN: 9780062406682
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: July 18, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2025
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
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