A tender family story with familiar beats, elevated by strong characters and engaging prose.
Haas’ novel follows a woman as she confronts her difficult past and uncovers long-buried family secrets.
Twenty-eight-year-old writer Charlotte Sutton is drawn back to her hometown of Lakeside, Ohio, by a cryptic voicemail about her father, Chuck, a beloved local celebrity now slipping into the fog of Alzheimer’s. When she arrives, she finds her father’s newspaper and marina businesses faltering, her former classmates still simmering with old grudges, and, most shocking of all, a teenage half-brother named Adam. “Chuck could as easily have raised a baseball bat, slicing it through the air again and again to shatter her heart into pieces she’d never be able to glue back together,” she reflects as she considers the implications of a half-brother she has never known. Charlotte is, at first, determined to straighten out her father’s affairs and return to Pittsburgh as quickly as possible, but instead she stays to confront her memories, her father’s neglect, and her own bitterness. The narrative alternates between the past and present as Charlotte reconnects with estranged figures like her childhood sweetheart, Sammy, whom she abandoned. Meanwhile, the quick progression of Chuck’s illness means that Charlotte may have to stay longer than anticipated, but also that there isn’t much time to reckon with her parents’ betrayals, her responsibility regarding Adam, and the possibility of reshaping her life. Haas writes with skill and assurance, rendering the waterfront community in vivid detail and giving Charlotte’s inner conflicts emotional depth without slowing the story’s momentum. Her prose is grounded and filled with flashes of sardonic wit, like when Charlotte describes her hometown as “a step back in time—like being dropped onto an old-timey movie set.” Though some flashbacks to middle school feel tangential and unnecessary, the novel succeeds as a moving account of strained family bonds, illness, and second chances. Its themes may be familiar, but Haas’ strong character work and carefully drawn setting elevate the sweet and resonant material.
A tender family story with familiar beats, elevated by strong characters and engaging prose.Pub Date: June 3, 2025
ISBN: 9781645382386
Page Count: 310
Publisher: Ten16 Press
Review Posted Online: Oct. 2, 2025
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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