This fascinating 19th-century take on Orange Is the New Black is subtle, intelligent, and thrillingly melodramatic.
A London governess and a Scottish midwife’s neglected daughter are sent to a penal colony in Australia, where an Aboriginal girl is in another sort of captivity.
Kline’s monumental eighth novel opens in 1840 on Flinders Island, Australia, where an 8-year-old orphan named Mathinna is whisked away from her tribe at the whimsy of visiting dignitary Lady Franklin, who fancies training one of the "savages." A necklace of shells made by her mother and a pet possum named Waluka are all Mathinna can take from the life she knew. Across the ocean, 21-year-old Evangeline, also recently orphaned, is fired from her job in London and sent to Newgate Prison when a family treasure is found in her room—and this is not the only problematic gift she has received from the family’s eldest son, now conveniently traveling in Venice. Meanwhile, in Glasgow, half-starved 16-year-old urchin Hazel Ferguson is caught stealing a silver spoon. Evangeline and Hazel become acquainted on the Medea, a former slaving ship bound for the prison colony where the now obviously pregnant Evangeline is to serve a sentence of 14 years. Kline takes her time with this epic story, creating each of her nightmarish and uniquely malodorous settings in detail, from the harrowing months at sea with the randy and violent sailors to the strange new world that awaits Evangeline and Hazel in the convict colony. Once back on land, the narrative loops in poor lonely Mathinna, whose life now consists mainly of being dragged out at tea parties to be pawed and humiliated, then clicks into high gear when Hazel gets a work-release assignment as a maid in Lady Franklin’s household. This episode in history gets a top-notch treatment by Kline, one of our foremost historical novelists.
This fascinating 19th-century take on Orange Is the New Black is subtle, intelligent, and thrillingly melodramatic.Pub Date: Aug. 25, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-06-235634-5
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Custom House/Morrow
Review Posted Online: Aug. 18, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2020
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
Though uneven, this is still a pleasurable, comforting read.
Infertility, family secrets, and alpacas all figure in Quindlen’s latest meditation on mothering and domesticity.
Polly’s life looks enviable. Happily married to the adoring Mark—a vet at the Bronx Zoo—she teaches English at a private Manhattan girls’ school and loves her work. She has a protective older brother and close girlfriends, who’ve formed a book club where no one is expected to read the book. But Polly desperately wants a child and, at 42, knows time is running out. She and Mark have gone through endless fertility treatments, to no avail. Meantime, Polly’s friends have given her a DNA kit as a jokey birthday gift, and something mysterious shows up in the test results. Then, out of nowhere, a young woman contacts her, suggesting they may be related. That’s not all: Polly feels estranged from her mother, a revered judge who’s insufficiently maternal in her daughter’s view. Her father has always cherished her, but he’s in a nursing home now with a rapidly failing mind. And something is amiss with her best pal, Sarah. Quindlen’s trademark empathy is evident throughout, and her wry humor leavens some of the serious goings-on. Early on, Mark and Polly visit a fertility clinic with photos of babies in the waiting room; for Polly, “it felt…like a Weight Watchers facility with hot fudge sundae pictures on the wall.” Then we meet these charming alpacas, humming and pronking, on a farm run by an earth mother, whose wisdom will help Polly get on with her life. The plot swerves around a bit, there may be one surplus narrative thread (e.g., Polly’s star student Josephine running aground after graduation), and at the end, the author ties things up too neatly, pushing the “circle of life” theme too hard.
Though uneven, this is still a pleasurable, comforting read.Pub Date: Feb. 24, 2026
ISBN: 9780593734605
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: Nov. 22, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2026
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