An introspective, emotional novel that will draw readers in.
Constance Hays Matsumoto and Kent Matsumoto’s historical novel chronicles the experiences of two Japanese Americans during World War II.
In 1939, Ruby Ishimaru is a fourth grader in Waimea on the Hawaiian island of Kauai. She’s shattered by the death of her mother, who passed away during childbirth, and, two years later, by the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor. Suddenly, Ruby and her family members are rejected by people in their community, who suddenly see Japanese Americans as enemies. Koji Matsuo, who’s 10 years old in 1939, grew up on the island of Miyajima; he moves to Hiroshima with his family, who despair of Japan’s wartime activities and share with Koji the secret that he’s actually an American citizen. Ruby’s and Koji’s stories are told in parallel, exploring the complicated relationship between Japanese and American identities during the Second World War and its aftermath. Ruby, whose father was imprisoned after Pearl Harbor on suspicion of being an “enemy alien,” spends the war in Japanese detention camps with her sister and stepmother in Arkansas and California, and Koji witnesses the devastating atomic bomb attack against Hiroshima in 1945. The chapters focused on the latter event are the most powerful, and the most upsetting, in the novel. The authors continue the characters’ stories after the war, fascinatingly addressing the different and lasting effects of the conflict on Ruby and Koji. It takes a long time for the two separate storylines to intertwine, but the overall narrative is so compelling, and told with such passion, that readers will scarcely notice. The work is based upon the authors’ real-life family histories, and their commitment to historical research is apparent as they address wartime atrocities with honesty.
An introspective, emotional novel that will draw readers in.Pub Date: May 1, 2023
ISBN: 9781627204194
Page Count: 388
Publisher: Apprentice House
Review Posted Online: April 10, 2023
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
An existential crisis that steps on its own final moments.
With only a month left until the world ends due to a swiftly approaching black hole, Don and Rodney, a retired gay couple, road-trip from Maine to Washington to spend their final days with their son.
After reports that a planet-swallowing black hole is making its way toward Earth, Rodney and Don—who have been together for 40 years and survived everything from homophobia to the HIV crisis—decide to pack their belongings into an RV, say goodbye to their neighbors, and travel from Camden, Maine, to Washington to uphold a promise to spend their final days with their son. They can’t wait any longer, since there’s already chaos around the country: “Military vehicles in the streets of most cities and towns. Looting, rioting, the burning of cars and buildings and people, all of it had already happened.” As they make their way west across the country, they encounter fellow travelers ranging from close-knit families to free-spirited hippies, some of whom have come to terms with the impending end of the world and others who haven’t. While the story seems to be asking readers what they would do if they had 30 days left to live, and reflects on what different kinds of acceptance might look like in the face of unavoidable tragedy, it loses some of its poignancy in a series of thinly padded monologues about the meaning of life. Clearly intended to pack an emotional punch, it’s failed by an abrupt ending, and the way the journey’s mystery—which will be obvious to many readers—is revealed by an info dump in the last chapter.
An existential crisis that steps on its own final moments.Pub Date: April 28, 2026
ISBN: 9781250881236
Page Count: 176
Publisher: Tor
Review Posted Online: March 9, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2026
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