A somber study of good intentions undone by money and abuse.
The lives of rich and poor intersect, often violently, in contemporary Nigeria.
Adébáyọ̀'s second novel—following Stay With Me (2017)—centers on two people on opposite ends of the financial spectrum but with similar fixations on status. Ẹniọlá is a 16-year-old student at a private school who’s at risk of expulsion due to his family’s inability to pay tuition fees. Nearby, Wúràọlá, a young doctor from a wealthy family, has just been engaged to Kúnlé, a TV news anchor whose father is running for a local governorship. Ẹniọlá is trying to cover up the shame of his father's unemployment, which gets him spat on in the street and whipped at school; Wúràọlá wants to escape from Kúnlé's escalating physical abuse of her, stoked by his jealousy of her work colleague. In person, their lives overlap only glancingly—Ẹniọlá works as an apprentice at a dress shop where Wúràọlá's mother is having a dress prepared for her 50th birthday. But Adébáyọ̀'s point is that the classes are interwoven much more deeply than surfaces suggest, that both are equally likely to be undermined by greed, and that small acts of violence become larger ones wherever you go. (The title refers to Wúràọlá's mother's bitter observation “that life was war, a series of battles with the occasional spell of good things.”) Once Adébáyọ̀ introduces a plotline involving rival politicians, the story’s trajectory becomes more predictable and moralizing (not to mention more violent). But the novel thrives in its particulars, from Ẹniọlá's struggle to maintain his dignity while openly begging on the streets, to Wúràọlá's tense relationship with her siblings and keeping up appearances. In the process she reveals how stifling—and dangerous—unthinking loyalty to tradition and family can be.
A somber study of good intentions undone by money and abuse.Pub Date: Feb. 7, 2023
ISBN: 9780525657644
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: Dec. 13, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2023
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
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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