An epic tragedy by a master storyteller.
The tumultuous capstone of the Nero trilogy, following Nero (2024) and Tyrant (2025).
In 60 C.E., Nero Claudius Caesar still wants to be a noble Roman. But as emperor, his absolute power will be his ruin. At first, the senate does his bidding and tolerates his licentious spending on monuments to himself. He’s already had his mother, Agrippina, murdered. Now he divorces his first wife, Octavia, then has her killed, too. Then he “accidentally” kills his next wife, Poppaea, when she’s nearly ready to give birth. After his friend and mentor Seneca causes mild offense, he instructs the older man to go home, write his last will and testament, and then slit his own wrists while soldiers witness the deed. This is a more merciful death than the crucifixions meted out to Christ’s followers. Christian gatherings are punishable by death perhaps because Nero intuits the deep threat to Roman authority posed by the nascent faith. Meanwhile, Nero fancies himself a man of the arts whose poetry, acting, and music touch the souls of his audiences. They must applaud, of course. He recalls Seneca’s admonition that “it would be vulgar for an emperor to declaim on the stage, or play my lyre, or act out scenes in mime,” but says, “I have a gift, Seneca.” It’s unclear from the story how much talent Nero really had, but in one dramatic scene he plays his lyre onstage even as Rome is devoured by flames. Meanwhile, he depletes the treasury on projects of self-adulation while ordinary Romans can’t buy bread. He corrupts silver coins with lead, but the trick doesn’t work for long. Then, bored by Rome, he takes an extended trip to the Greek province to indulge his artistic side. He’s so happy with his reception there that he does something his senators will not forgive. To the west, an army gathers to overthrow him. His world closes in ever more tightly—and he’s only 30 years old. “What a loss I shall be to the arts,” he says. This series is rich in gritty details of daily life and in vivid portrayals of Nero and more sympathetic characters such as Seneca and Poppaea.
An epic tragedy by a master storyteller.Pub Date: May 22, 2026
ISBN: 9798897100767
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Pegasus
Review Posted Online: March 23, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2026
Fans of Stockett’s bestselling debut will love this engaging follow-up.
Stockett heads to Mississippi for another historical novel about feisty women.
This time, perhaps recalling criticisms of cultural appropriation in The Help (2009), she sticks to feisty white women, with one exception. The setting is Oxford in 1933. For two miserable years, 11-year-old Meg has lived in “the Orphan,” a county asylum for parentless girls. Chairlady Garnett—a villain so one-note she’d twirl a mustache if she had one—makes it her mission to ostracize the older girls she deems unadoptable, stigmatizing them as offspring of the “feebleminded” mothers who abandoned them. She particularly has it in for smart, sassy Meg, who refuses to believe her mother’s mysterious disappearance was deliberate. Elsewhere in Oxford, Birdie Calhoun comes to visit her sister Frances, who married a wealthy banker, to ask for money on behalf of their mother and grandmother back in Footely. Frances isn’t thrilled by this reminder of her impoverished small-town origins. But she’s trying to climb up in Oxford society by volunteering at the Orphan, the asylum’s books need to be done before the state inspector shows up in a few weeks, and Birdie is a bookkeeper. Having neatly arranged to keep Birdie in town and draw these two storylines together, Stockett goes on to spin a compulsively readable yarn with enough plot for a half-dozen novels. Birdie and Meg become friends, Meg is adopted despite Garnett’s best efforts, Meg’s mother turns up at the Orphan demanding to know where her child is—and that’s less than a quarter of the way through a long, winding narrative that keeps piling on more dramatic developments until all loose ends are neatly, if hastily, wrapped up in the final pages. Stockett might be making a point about Southern women facing facts and standing up for themselves, but mostly this is just a satisfyingly twisty tale that should make a great miniseries.
Fans of Stockett’s bestselling debut will love this engaging follow-up.Pub Date: May 5, 2026
ISBN: 9781954118812
Page Count: 656
Publisher: Spiegel & Grau
Review Posted Online: Feb. 2, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2026
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
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