Comic and profound, an intricate collage of a novel that plants itself in exhausted earth and, somehow, flourishes.
A 30-something poet curates the absurdities of modern life in his journals as he works—and then again, doesn’t—as a copywriter in New York City.
It’s the summer of 2017 and the kitsch farm where D__ makes ends meet as a copywriter is on the brink of mass layoffs. Trump is in office, kids are being kept in prison camps at the border, the U.S. is supporting Israeli airstrikes on Palestinians, and, to a reader in the current moment, comments about the world’s tailspin into fascism have a bitterly ironic savor. Irony is an apt emotion for a novel that explores the particular disaffection of the millennial generation: There’s a glut of writing that seeks to untangle—or, failing that, poke knowing fun at—the neuroses and foibles of those who came of age during the Great Recession, but Poppick, treading the same old paths of observation, is somehow never trite. He performs the same magic trick in navigating D__’s sometimes ambivalent relationship to Judaism, succinctly distilling the tensions experienced by many Jews as the horrors of both historical and contemporary antisemitism are weaponized to justify further human suffering. The novel is clear and funny, wryly cynical without indulging in nihilism. As D__ moves inexorably through time (and the relentless march of time is a prominent theme, bolstered by frequent references to the works of Proust and the physical progression of months and years in the chapter headings), he documents scraps of conversations, dreams, emails, vignettes he calls “parables,” and, occasionally, poems. This mélange lends itself to an agile prose style, one that runs the gamut from insouciance to elegance. For all of this, the narrative is not abstract. The dissolution of D__’s seven-year relationship, his close-knit group of poet friends, his search for employment, and his appetite for meaning comprise a linear, moving, and accessible story.
Comic and profound, an intricate collage of a novel that plants itself in exhausted earth and, somehow, flourishes.Pub Date: Feb. 3, 2026
ISBN: 9781668090008
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Scribner
Review Posted Online: Jan. 19, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2026
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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