An absorbing and fast-paced novel of war, romance, and espionage in WWII-era Indonesia.
In Putterman and Ishak’s historical novel, an ambitious man strives to make a fortune in colonial Indonesia.
In 1937, Avram Shabbes, a Jewish Pole of modest background, is building a life in Batavia (later Jakarta), a city of smugglers, thieves, spies, and concubines. He has a sharp eye for opportunity and, unlike many other Europeans, respects the Indonesians; he’s learned the local language, which helps him build a shipping operation that enjoys great success—until the Japanese conquest. Meanwhile, at home in Poland, Avram’s family waits for him to pay their passage overseas. By the time he realizes the extent of the horror in Europe, it’s too late to save them—instead, Avram pours all of his cunning and resources into staying alive in occupied Indonesia, working for the Japanese and Germans to stay out of internment camps. His native wife, Sarinah, is a militant nationalist, convinced by a prophecy that the Japanese will be the route to independence (“they are coming to liberate us from the Belandas,” she says, referring to the Dutch). Avram’s chance for redemption comes when he’s recruited into a spy ring, using his chummy rapport with German seamen to extract information. As more atrocities come to light, the couple undertake dangerous espionage missions to save themselves and help win the war. This is an inventive spin on both the immigrant story and the Holocaust narrative. The atmosphere of a mid-20th-century colonial outpost is palpable, evoking the environment of European racism and oppression in the East Indies. Avram is an everyman but also an outsider, and his in-between status is a clever device that the authors capably use to interrogate social norms and assumptions. Avram is often a slave to circumstance, but he proves himself to be a resourceful and motivated survivor and a complex, flawed hero. His compelling journey poses complicated questions about what is ethically permissible and when the ends justify the means.
An absorbing and fast-paced novel of war, romance, and espionage in WWII-era Indonesia.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: -
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: Jan. 8, 2026
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
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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