A novel that fails to fulfill its early promise.
A Nigerian father living in Italy struggles to stay afloat after his wife suddenly dies in Aghanya’s novel.
Ejike and Neki Akabogu move to Castel Gandolfo, Italy, to escape the political tumult and economic degradation of their native Nigeria. The relocation is daunting—in order to fund it, they are compelled to sell all of their possessions and borrow from family and friends; they struggle to accommodate themselves to a new language and the frosty reception of their new neighbors. Then, unexpected tragedy strikes: Just as she’s angling for a promotion at work, Neki collapses from an attack of angina and dies at the hospital. Ejike plummets into despair, a sadness clumsily portrayed by the author; the prose is uneven and often ungrammatical. Here, Ejike speaks plaintively to his wife’s corpse, wondering how he will manage a now uncertain future: “What do I tell your parents as my intention was for us to walk out of this hospital together and you will decide whether to inform them of the episode you had or not? Now, I am left to be the bearer of sad news.” A humble teacher, Ejike wrestles with his newfound financial obligations; the funeral for Neki will be prohibitively costly, and his father-in-law shamelessly shakes him down for money. Aghanya vividly chronicles Ejike’s Job-like descent into trouble as he borrows money from a dangerous loan shark and then loses his job and his home; it’s a terrifying portrait of the fragility of a life, affectingly rendered. However, the plot rockets too quickly from happiness to despondency, and the ending has the plastic feel of something neatly manufactured. The precariousness of the immigrant, always one setback away from life-changing catastrophe, is powerfully captured in the narrative. The novel as a whole, though, lacks literary quality and style, and it plummets into melodrama that ultimately swallows the story whole.
A novel that fails to fulfill its early promise.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: 244
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: Nov. 4, 2024
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
A tender and moving portrait about the transcendent power of art and friendship.
An artwork’s value grows if you understand the stories of the people who inspired it.
Never in her wildest dreams would foster kid Louisa dream of meeting C. Jat, the famous painter of The One of the Sea, which depicts a group of young teens on a pier on a hot summer’s day. But in Backman’s latest, that’s just what happens—an unexpected (but not unbelievable) set of circumstances causes their paths to collide right before the dying 39-year-old artist’s departure from the world. One of his final acts is to bequeath that painting to Louisa, who has endured a string of violent foster homes since her mother abandoned her as a child. Selling the painting will change her life—but can she do it? Before deciding, she accompanies Ted, one of the artist’s close friends and one of the young teens captured in that celebrated painting, on a train journey to take the artist’s ashes to his hometown. She wants to know all about the painting, which launched Jat’s career at age 14, and the circle of beloved friends who inspired it. The bestselling author of A Man Called Ove (2014) and other novels, Backman gives us a heartwarming story about how these friends, set adrift by the violence and unhappiness of their homes, found each other and created a new definition of family. “You think you’re alone,” one character explains, “but there are others like you, people who stand in front of white walls and blank paper and only see magical things. One day one of them will recognize you and call out: ‘You’re one of us!’” As Ted tells stories about his friends—how Jat doubted his talents but found a champion in fiery Joar, who took on every bully to defend him; how Ali brought an excitement to their circle that was “like a blinding light, like a heart attack”—Louisa recognizes herself as a kindred soul and feels a calling to realize her own artistic gifts. What she decides to do with the painting is part of a caper worthy of the stories that Ted tells her. The novel is humorous, poignant, and always life-affirming, even when describing the bleakness of the teens’ early lives. “Art is a fragile magic, just like love,” as someone tells Louisa, “and that’s humanity’s only defense against death.”
A tender and moving portrait about the transcendent power of art and friendship.Pub Date: May 6, 2025
ISBN: 9781982112820
Page Count: 448
Publisher: Atria
Review Posted Online: July 4, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2025
SEEN & HEARD
A beautiful meditation on queer identity against a supernatural backdrop.
Three women deal very differently with vampirism in Schwab’s era-spanning follow-up to The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue (2020).
In 16th-century Spain, Maria seduces a wealthy viscount in an attempt to seize whatever control she can over her own life. It turns out that being a wife—even a wealthy one—is just another cage, but then a mysterious widow offers Maria a surprising escape route. In the 19th century, Charlotte is sent from her home in the English countryside to live with an aunt in London when she’s found trying to kiss her best friend. She’s despondent at the idea of marrying a man, but another mysterious widow—who has a secret connection to Maria’s widow from centuries earlier—appears and teaches Charlotte that she can be free to love whomever she chooses, if she’s brave enough. In 2019, Alice’s memories of growing up in Scotland with her mercurial older sister, Catty, pull her mind away from her first days at Harvard University. And though she doesn’t meet any mysterious widows, Alice wakes up alone after a one-night stand unable to tolerate sunlight, sporting two new fangs, and desperate to drink blood. Horrified at her transformation, she searches Boston for her hookup, who was the last person she remembers seeing before she woke up as a vampire. Schwab delicately intertwines the three storylines, which are compelling individually even before the reader knows how they will connect. Maria, Charlotte, and Alice are queer women searching for love, recognition, and wholeness, growing fangs and defying mortality in a world that would deny them their very existence. Alice’s flashbacks to Catty are particularly moving, and subtly play off themes of grief and loneliness laid out in the historical timelines.
A beautiful meditation on queer identity against a supernatural backdrop.Pub Date: June 10, 2025
ISBN: 9781250320520
Page Count: 544
Publisher: Tor
Review Posted Online: March 22, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
PERSPECTIVES
PERSPECTIVES
SEEN & HEARD
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