A thoughtful and elegant exploration of 21st-century motherhood.
After decades of solitude, a San Francisco author’s life—and her ambitions—change when she reconnects with a college friend in Henneberg’s novel.
For years, Josiewas convinced that Radhika, an incisive editor whom she met at a college writing seminar, was dead. The announcement, five years after college, that Rad had been diagnosed with breast cancer shocked Josie at first, but in the 12 years that followed, she moved on with her life—completing a graduate degree in fiction, releasing a short story collection to modest praise, and, most recently, attempting to have a baby through artificial insemination. When she comes across an article in The Atlantic that Rad has written—a raw account of her battle with breast cancer during her residency in an abortion clinic, and the subsequent birth of her twins—Josie is hesitant to reach out. But several months later, she runs into her old acquaintance in a grocery store and is swept into her friend’s chaotic life once again. Soon, Josie is at Rad’s house every week to share her writing. Amid the critique sessions, Josie shares her own dream of motherhood, anchored in the sudden, tragic death of her own parents. She grows close to Rad’s idyllic-seeming family and develops a relationship with the young babysitter, who often seems to have a stronger connection with the children than they have with their own mother. But when tragedy strikes, the relationships that Josie has come to hold dear threaten to collapse. Amid the frenzy of Covid-19-era San Francisco, vividly portrayed by Henneberg, Josie must make a series of difficult choices—whether to endure the risks of another pregnancy, to abandon her interminable novel, and to preserve difficult relationships. Over the course of this lucid debut novel, the author offers a nuanced portrayal of the complexities that are inherent to modern womanhood, and she does so by anchoring them to consistently compelling characters. The author’s fast-paced, conversational prose style will draw readers quickly into the lives of the various players, whose imperfections have the effect of making them more sympathetic.
A thoughtful and elegant exploration of 21st-century motherhood.Pub Date: April 22, 2025
ISBN: 9798986066721
Page Count: 272
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: March 28, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2025
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
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
SEEN & HEARD
A pleasant if not entirely convincing tribute to the power of art.
A French art historian’s English-language fiction debut combines the story of a loving relationship between a grandfather and granddaughter with an enlightening discussion of art.
One day, when 10-year-old Mona removes the necklace given to her by her now-dead grandmother, she experiences a frightening, hour-long bout of blindness. Her parents take her to the doctor, who gives her a variety of tests and also advises that she see a psychiatrist. Her grandfather Henry tells her parents that he will take care of that assignment, but instead, he takes Mona on weekly visits to either the Louvre, the Musée d’Orsay, or the Centre Pompidou, where each week they study a single work of art, gazing at it deeply and then discussing its impact and history and the biography of its maker. For the reader’s benefit, Schlesser also describes each of the works in scrupulous detail. As the year goes on, Mona faces the usual challenges of elementary school life and the experiences of being an only child, and slowly begins to understand the causes of her temporary blindness. Primarily an amble through a few dozen of Schlesser’s favorite works of art—some well known and others less so, from Botticelli and da Vinci through Basquiat and Bourgeois—the novel would probably benefit from being read at a leisurely pace. While the dialogue between Henry and the preternaturally patient and precocious Mona sometimes strains credulity, readers who don’t have easy access to the museums of Paris may enjoy this vicarious trip in the company of a guide who focuses equally on that which can be seen and the context that can’t be. Come for the novel, stay for the introductory art history course.
A pleasant if not entirely convincing tribute to the power of art.Pub Date: Aug. 26, 2025
ISBN: 9798889661115
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Europa Editions
Review Posted Online: June 7, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2025
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
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