Often unbearably sad, but beautifully told.
An elderly woman tells the story of her life among the Evenki people in northern China.
The novel opens with the unnamed, 90-year-old narrator explaining why she has declined to move out of her mountain dwelling with most of the rest of her family: “I won’t sleep in a room where I can’t see the stars. All my life I’ve passed the night in their company. If I see a pitch-dark ceiling when I awake from my dreams, my eyes will go blind.” The woman and her family are Evenki people—an Indigenous ethnic group living mostly in northern China and Russia—and they sustain themselves by herding reindeer and trading pelts and antlers for bullets, cloths, and cooking supplies. The narrator tells the story of her life growing up in the mountains with her tight-knit clan, including her parents, Linke and Tamara; her siblings, Lena and Luni; and her uncle Nidu the Shaman, the clan’s “Headman,” who fascinates the narrator with his connection to the spiritual world. The narrator has fond memories of her childhood, but it was far from idyllic: Death is a constant presence in the novel, claiming two of the narrator’s siblings among other family members. The Evenki are forced to deal with the Japanese invasion of China, with the men made to train with the occupying army; after the occupation ends, they have to contend with loggers chopping down the forest in which they live. The author’s writing is unsparing and poignant; she writes ably about the tragedies that mark the narrator’s life as well as her love for her family: “If I am an old tree that has lived through the wind and the rain without falling to the earth, then the children and grandchildren at my knees are branches on that tree. No matter how old I am, those branches continue to flourish.” This is an exceptionally pretty novel and a fascinating look at a people that not many U.S. readers know about.
Often unbearably sad, but beautifully told.Pub Date: Jan. 13, 2026
ISBN: 9781571311474
Page Count: 344
Publisher: Milkweed
Review Posted Online: Nov. 8, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
PERSPECTIVES
PERSPECTIVES
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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