A smart novel that carefully considers the shifting sands of life.
A negative review and a heedless one-night stand lead to the cancellation of a respected newspaper critic.
After dashing off a damning takedown of a one-woman show at the Edinburgh Fringe—part of the annual summer arts festival—attractive, promiscuous Alex Lyons thinks nothing of spending the night with the selfsame woman performer, Hayley Sinclair. The next morning, Hayley reads the review, realizes she’s slept with its author, and sets off down a path of revenge. Renaming her performance The Alex Lyons Experience, she tells her tale of outrage and invites others to contribute. The result is a hit show and a tsunami of attention that goes viral, branding Alex as “the poster boy for indiscriminate sexual trawling. The man with no moral compass.” Runcie’s up-to-date debut cleverly—and comically—spans the gender issues exposed here while also widening the lens to include other topics. Sophie Rigden, a junior colleague of Alex’s, is working and living alongside him in the newspaper’s Edinburgh rental apartment, becoming his witness and audience (and the book's narrator). Sophie is both a critic and an obituary writer, as well as the breadwinner in her relationship with Josh, an academic, and Arlo, their 14-month-old child. Her background is very different from Alex’s, he being the son of a “national treasure,” the actress Dame Judith Lyons. Nepotism, misogyny, motherhood, culture, criticism, love, and death all come under the spotlight as Alex’s career sinks and Sophie’s rises while their relationship shifts into perilous territory. The clarity of Runcie's narration and her ability to consider both sides of an argument render the deeper issues digestible while, on the surface, the partying, drinking, distinctive characters and their predicaments keep the wheels spinning. It all makes for an unusual, thought-provoking, multilayered read that book groups will enjoy debating.
A smart novel that carefully considers the shifting sands of life.Pub Date: July 8, 2025
ISBN: 9780385551076
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: April 4, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2025
PERSPECTIVES
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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