This atmospheric novel elevates disparate voices, drawing a complex picture of community-focused life beyond the family unit.
In this lyrical novel of suspense, a grandmother searches for her missing granddaughters in an alternate, dystopian version of Detroit.
In Fort Détroit, a city that was never ceded by the French and whose urban center is roiling with toxic spills and lawlessness, grieving grandmother Gloria has moved into her daughter’s city-center house under the most dire of circumstances: Judith, the daughter, was found murdered, drowned in her own bathtub, and Judith’s daughters, 15-year-old Cassandra and Mathilda, 12, have disappeared from their troubled home. Gloria gradually gets to know her neighbors, including Solomon, a gentle, softhearted gardener, and straight-talking Eunice, who’s recently lost her father. Gloria pursues fruitless inquiries with the local police, and then, frustrated, she finally decides to explore the local park, Parc Rouge, basically a dense and quasi-impenetrable forest that’s rumored to be inhabited by ragtag bunches of feral children. In this case, the rumors are true: These kids look out for each other, but they’ve also created a rigid set of rules and hierarchies. And watching over them all, kids and adults alike, is a large pit bull named Priscilla. The story, told from the points of view of various characters, including Priscilla, encompasses speculative alternative history as well as a dystopian future—albeit with utopian aspects—and is recounted in sometimes-feverish prose that pushes its boundaries into poetry and contains both violent and magical elements. In particularly compelling, funny, and entertaining scenes, bedtime stories are drawn from a mashup of multiple fairy tales, delivered in the children’s grammatically free-wheeling slang. Though the viewpoint switching is jarring at times, the narrative delivers a warm and wild portrait of ragged but purpose-built communities.
This atmospheric novel elevates disparate voices, drawing a complex picture of community-focused life beyond the family unit.Pub Date: Sept. 5, 2023
ISBN: 9781771965606
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Biblioasis
Review Posted Online: June 21, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2023
BOOK REVIEW
PERSPECTIVES
PERSPECTIVES
PERSPECTIVES
Haig’s positive message will keep his fans happy.
A British widow travels to Ibiza and learns that it’s never too late to have a happy life.
In a world that seems to be getting more unstable by the moment, Haig’s novels are a steady ship in rough seas, offering a much-needed positive message. In works like the bestselling The Midnight Library (2020), he reminds us that finding out what you truly love and where you belong in the universe are the foundations of building a better existence. His latest book continues this upbeat messaging, albeit in a somewhat repetitive and facile way. Retired British schoolteacher Grace Winters discovers that an old acquaintance has died and left her a ramshackle home in Ibiza. A widow who lost her only child years earlier, Grace is at first reluctant to visit the house, because, at 72, she more or less believes her chance for happiness is over—but when she rouses herself to travel to the island, she discovers the opposite is true. A mystery surrounds her friend’s death involving a roguish islander, his activist daughter, an internationally famous DJ, and a strange glow in the sea that acts as a powerful life force and upends Grace’s ideas of how the cosmos works. Framed as a response to a former student’s email, the narrative follows Grace’s journey from skeptic (she was a math teacher, after all) to believer in the possibility of magic as she learns to move on from the past. Her transformation is the book’s main conflict, aside from a protest against an evil developer intent on destroying Ibiza’s natural beauty. The outcome is never in doubt, and though the story often feels stretched to the limit—this novel could have easily been a novella—the author’s insistence on the power of connection to change lives comes through loud and clear.
Haig’s positive message will keep his fans happy.Pub Date: Sept. 3, 2024
ISBN: 9780593489277
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: Aug. 3, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2024
A vibrant tale of a remarkable woman.
Who was Shakespeare?
Move over, Earl of Oxford and Francis Bacon: There’s another contender for the true author of plays attributed to the bard of Stratford—Emilia Bassano, a clever, outspoken, educated woman who takes center stage in Picoult’s spirited novel. Of Italian heritage, from a family of court musicians, Emilia was a hidden Jew and the courtesan of a much older nobleman who vetted plays to be performed for Queen Elizabeth. She was well traveled—unlike Shakespeare, she visited Italy and Denmark, where, Picoult imagines, she may have met Rosencrantz and Guildenstern—and was familiar with court intrigue and English law. “Every gap in Shakespeare’s life or knowledge that has had to be explained away by scholars, she somehow fills,” Picoult writes. Encouraged by her lover, Emilia wrote plays and poetry, but 16th-century England was not ready for a female writer. Picoult interweaves Emilia’s story with that of her descendant Melina Green, an aspiring playwright, who encounters the same sexist barriers to making herself heard that Emilia faced. In alternating chapters, Picoult follows Melina’s frustrated efforts to get a play produced—a play about Emilia, who Melina is certain sold her work to Shakespeare. Melina’s play, By Any Other Name, “wasn’t meant to be a fiction; it was meant to be the resurrection of an erasure.” Picoult creates a richly detailed portrait of daily life in Elizabethan England, from sumptuous castles to seedy hovels. Melina’s story is less vivid: Where Emilia found support from the witty Christopher Marlowe, Melina has a fashion-loving gay roommate; where Emilia faces the ravages of repeated outbreaks of plague, for Melina, Covid-19 occurs largely offstage; where Emilia has a passionate affair with the adoring Earl of Southampton, Melina’s lover is an awkward New York Times theater critic. It’s Emilia’s story, and Picoult lovingly brings her to life.
A vibrant tale of a remarkable woman.Pub Date: Aug. 20, 2024
ISBN: 9780593497210
Page Count: 544
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: June 15, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2024
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