An ambitious but disjointed multigenerational tale of a tragic chapter in world history.
Durham’s debut novel follows three estranged family members as they connect before, during, and after the Vietnam War.
In 1960, Isabela Marquez, an engaged woman who comes from an aristocratic Salvadoran family, is inspired by a dream to pursue her art as a painter in Thailand shortly before her wedding. Lance Jameson, inspired by his college professor Nigel Hawkes, becomes part of a British Intelligence mission to befriend the Hmong but soon becomes embroiled in a drug cartel, falls in love with Isabela, and confronts his past. Mera Rodriguez grows up in El Salvador with a loving family that’s torn apart when soldiers take her brothers away for the war effort and murder a family member for standing up to authority; she resides with a healer and is subsequently kidnapped by drug smugglers, forcing her to escape and reinvent herself in a murderous world. Written in three parts, this intricate narrative effectively weaves together the separate stories of the three main characters. Although the plotlines—especially Mera’s—are initially vague and dreamlike; Isabela’s story even starts with a description of a dream: “Awareness expanded to merge with undefined dimension and immensely open possibility. Solid forms arose from the void to populate the emptiness like endless stars fading in and out.” However, the stories as a whole result in a unique blend that explores the harsh realities of the Vietnam era as well as themes of generativity, rebirth, and familial connection. Characters’ backstories, while sad, are psychologically engaging. However, it takes time for one to feel grounded in the story for a few reasons—including choppy, sometimes unstructured chapters and extraneous details that make the novel feel overlong. Despite these flaws, this historical novel offers a vivid account of how the war-torn, drug-centric milieu affected American soldiers, intelligence agents, and, most critically, citizens inhabiting poor countries.
An ambitious but disjointed multigenerational tale of a tragic chapter in world history.Pub Date: Aug. 5, 2022
ISBN: 9798985947724
Page Count: 518
Publisher: Self
Review Posted Online: May 31, 2023
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
The emotions run high, the conversations run deep, and the relationships ebb and flow with grace.
When tragedy strikes, a mother and daughter forge a new life.
Morgan felt obligated to marry her high school sweetheart, Chris, when she got pregnant with their daughter, Clara. But she secretly got along much better with Chris’ thoughtful best friend, Jonah, who was dating her sister, Jenny. Now her life as a stay-at-home parent has left her feeling empty but not ungrateful for what she has. Jonah and Jenny eventually broke up, but years later they had a one-night stand and Jenny got pregnant with their son, Elijah. Now Jonah is back in town, engaged to Jenny, and working at the local high school as Clara’s teacher. Clara dreams of being an actress and has a crush on Miller, who plans to go to film school, but her father doesn't approve. It doesn’t help that Miller already has a jealous girlfriend who stalks him via text from college. But Clara and Morgan’s home life changes radically when Chris and Jenny are killed in an accident, revealing long-buried secrets and forcing Morgan to reevaluate the life she chose when early motherhood forced her hand. Feeling betrayed by the adults in her life, Clara marches forward, acting both responsible and rebellious as she navigates her teenage years without her father and her aunt, while Jonah and Morgan's relationship evolves in the wake of the accident. Front-loaded with drama, the story leaves plenty of room for the mother and daughter to unpack their feelings and decide what’s next.
The emotions run high, the conversations run deep, and the relationships ebb and flow with grace.Pub Date: Dec. 10, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-5420-1642-1
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Montlake Romance
Review Posted Online: Oct. 13, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2019
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
Still, a respectful and absorbing page-turner.
Hannah’s new novel is an homage to the extraordinary courage and endurance of Frenchwomen during World War II.
In 1995, an elderly unnamed widow is moving into an Oregon nursing home on the urging of her controlling son, Julien, a surgeon. This trajectory is interrupted when she receives an invitation to return to France to attend a ceremony honoring passeurs: people who aided the escape of others during the war. Cut to spring, 1940: Viann has said goodbye to husband Antoine, who's off to hold the Maginot line against invading Germans. She returns to tending her small farm, Le Jardin, in the Loire Valley, teaching at the local school and coping with daughter Sophie’s adolescent rebellion. Soon, that world is upended: The Germans march into Paris and refugees flee south, overrunning Viann’s land. Her long-estranged younger sister, Isabelle, who has been kicked out of multiple convent schools, is sent to Le Jardin by Julien, their father in Paris, a drunken, decidedly unpaternal Great War veteran. As the depredations increase in the occupied zone—food rationing, systematic looting, and the billeting of a German officer, Capt. Beck, at Le Jardin—Isabelle’s outspokenness is a liability. She joins the Resistance, volunteering for dangerous duty: shepherding downed Allied airmen across the Pyrenees to Spain. Code-named the Nightingale, Isabelle will rescue many before she's captured. Meanwhile, Viann’s journey from passive to active resistance is less dramatic but no less wrenching. Hannah vividly demonstrates how the Nazis, through starvation, intimidation and barbarity both casual and calculated, demoralized the French, engineering a community collapse that enabled the deportations and deaths of more than 70,000 Jews. Hannah’s proven storytelling skills are ideally suited to depicting such cataclysmic events, but her tendency to sentimentalize undermines the gravitas of this tale.
Still, a respectful and absorbing page-turner.Pub Date: Feb. 3, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-312-57722-3
Page Count: 448
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: Nov. 19, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2014
BOOK TO SCREEN
SEEN & HEARD
BOOK TO SCREEN
© Copyright 2025 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
