An immersive psychological portrait of one man’s battle with lifelong anger and guilt.
A young man’s troubles follow him after he trades his spiritual calling for life as a teacher.
Inspired by the life and teachings of Thomas Merton, Niall O’Malley leaves a stressful Ph.D. program to enter a Benedictine monastery in western Massachusetts full of “high hopes for communing with God and soothing his erratic temper.” But after five years, he abruptly abandons the refuge he sought in that religious vocation for a job teaching history at a public high school in a downtrodden town on the New Jersey coast within sight of Manhattan. Despite that fresh start, brightened even more by a blossoming romantic relationship with Lluvia, a kindhearted Puerto Rican immigrant who’s single-mindedly devoted to his happiness, and who he believes “embodied the goodness and joy he’d been seeking,” and a close friendship with his fellow teacher, Trinity, Niall struggles to find fulfillment in his new role, concluding that he’s “not really built for teaching.” One of the major impediments to his job satisfaction is his student Colton Chadwick, the son of a wealthy family whose parents place him in the school in hopes of curing his disciplinary problems. Niall suspects Colton of racist sympathies, and he reinforces his antipathy toward the student by persistently interpreting even the boy’s most innocuous words and actions in a negative light. In spare but quietly eloquent prose, Emmons unobtrusively shifts her story between Niall’s years at the monastery, where his rewarding immersion in the simple daily routine of the contemplative life is marred by an increasingly ominous conflict with his fellow monk Brother Thomas, to his life in the classroom and back again, even briefly exploring the roots of the sometimes-explosive rage that has scarred him since childhood. In the comparatively brief second section of the novel, she fashions a resolution of these parallel plots that honors the depth and complexity of her protagonist’s internal turmoil, as she recognizes that changing one’s life is not as simple as changing its outer circumstances.
An immersive psychological portrait of one man’s battle with lifelong anger and guilt.Pub Date: Oct. 28, 2025
ISBN: 9781636283623
Page Count: 232
Publisher: Red Hen Press
Review Posted Online: Aug. 29, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 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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