An absorbing fusion of a searing family drama with an unusual love story.
After losing her father, a woman discovers startling secrets in his memoir—including events she has suppressed for decades—in this novel.
Lillian Stoney Alexander cares for her ailing father, Graham, in his final days. But it’s his funeral that reignites her desire to learn specifically how her mother, Ivy, died 27 years earlier. Lillian, who was only 6 years old at the time, can’t remember anything beyond Ivy’s apparently fatal accident at their Charleston, South Carolina, ancestral home. But who’s the mysterious woman at Graham’s funeral, and why is Lillian only just now meeting her godmother and Ivy’s best friend, Alice Browder? Lillian ultimately finds a thumb drive containing Graham’s memoir. In an accompanying note, he declares his hope that it will stoke Lillian’s recollections as well as help make peace with her long-hated, fashion designer sister, Layla. His story begins during his first year as a College of Charleston professor, when he initially encountered the daughter of wealthy Edward Stoney. There was nothing conventional about Graham’s eventual relationship with Ivy, from his marriage proposal to the births of their daughters. And what awaits Lillian is a series of disconcerting revelations, even before her memories resurface. Farley’s characters aren’t easy to like. Their lives are teeming with deceit and animus while love isn’t always reciprocated. But the story is endlessly intriguing, with enough plot turns that readers who predict one or two may still be surprised. There’s likewise terrific melodrama: The sisters fight about selling their million-dollar childhood estate, and Lillian’s ex-fiance, Marcus Mullaly, reenters her life. Meanwhile, the appeal of some characters shines through, particularly artistic, sometimes withdrawn Lillian, and the family’s immutable housekeeper, Trudy Jackson, who’s both the protagonist’s close friend and her surrogate mother. The ending befits this realistic portrayal of love, family, and all the complications those two often engender.
An absorbing fusion of a searing family drama with an unusual love story. (acknowledgements, author bio)Pub Date: June 9, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-73462-942-2
Page Count: 274
Publisher: Leisure Time Books
Review Posted Online: May 7, 2020
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
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
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
© Copyright 2026 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
