Powerfully poetic, this novel serves as a cross section of the Granite State, a testament to American virtues—and flaws.
A multilayered and richly evocative portrait of a dying New Hampshire mill town, told through the voices of intertwined families during the 20th century.
“That’s us in a nutshell, mama and me, both of us free but not free of each other,” writes Carolyn, the initial narrator of Simon’s debut novel, set in fictional Ashland, New Hampshire. Carolyn, born in 1972 when her mother, Ellie, is just 17 and her nameless father has already disappeared, might as well be writing about the hold her home state has on so many other characters, from a couple named Edith and Gordon who meet in a 1920s tuberculosis sanatorium to her college writing instructor, Geoff, who admits he has “come to love New Hampshire.” These men and women often recall the region’s heyday with an achingly honest nostalgia: “There was a time when…[t]here was work enough farming the land, in the timber trade, good jobs, and in the mills too.” Yet just as often, they recall times when change came. “The world was slowly slipping away,” laments Carolyn’s uncle, Andy, a contrast to how painful the intersection of public and private can be, such as his brother’s life-altering injury in the Vietnam War. The author’s choice of having first-person narrators, each opening their chapters in medias res, allows each character’s interiority to blossom without question. Whether a section builds on what came before or introduces new information, its voice arrives fully formed, akin to elements of local geography like the Pemigewasett River or a peak in the Great White Mountains. “Live Free or Die” is the New Hampshire state motto, but no one in Ashland is ever completely free from their origins, whether they leave or stay.
Powerfully poetic, this novel serves as a cross section of the Granite State, a testament to American virtues—and flaws.Pub Date: Feb. 17, 2026
ISBN: 9798889661672
Page Count: 208
Publisher: Europa Editions
Review Posted Online: Nov. 8, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2025
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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