For patient readers with open hearts.
An award-winning author continues to hone his craft.
In the opening scene of this novel, someone called Evelyn has an epiphany while climbing a tree. In the next scene, someone called Tsering has an epiphany while making eye contact with a yak. Both have the same thought in their moment of enlightenment: “I’m alive…I’m separate from everything else.” As the narrative progresses, it becomes clear that Evelyn is a girl growing up in Indiana and Tsering is a boy growing up in Tibet. It also becomes clear that enlightenment is not an unalloyed blessing—if it’s any kind of blessing at all. Both characters diverge from the paths they’re expected to follow, with complicated results. In another writer’s hands, the question that animates the final third of this novel—no spoilers—might be the whole show. This author has other things in mind. Guterson first gained widespread attention with Snow Falling on Cedars (1994), in which he turned courtroom drama into meditative prose. Our Lady of the Forest (2003) was, among other things, an insightful exploration of how we deal with spiritual guidance delivered by imperfect messengers. Like Snow Falling on Cedars, Guterson’s novel The Final Case (2022) includes a murder trial, and, like that previous work, it asks serious questions about what we believe and why we believe it. This new book feels familiar in that the author is still interested in the same moral and philosophical themes, but it also feels different in that Guterson has clearly set himself free from the encumbrance of plot and detail and most of the trappings of a typical novel. This is a compliment. Perhaps the best way to appreciate this book is to regard it as a set of interconnected fables. Like the heroes of fable, both Evelyn and Tsering only emerge as real when the reader adds the details that make them real.
For patient readers with open hearts.Pub Date: Jan. 20, 2026
ISBN: 9781324111054
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Norton
Review Posted Online: Oct. 25, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 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
A dark and twisty look at just how far one woman is willing to go to find inspiration.
A struggling writer finds an unexpected muse when a mysterious man shows up at her cabin.
Petra Rose used to pump out a bestselling book every six months, but then the adaptation happened—that is, the disastrous film adaptation of her most famous book. The movie changed the book’s storyline so egregiously that fans couldn’t forgive her, and the ensuing harassment sent Petra into hiding and gave her a serious case of writer’s block. Petra’s one hope is her solo writing retreat at a remote cabin, where she can escape the distractions of real life and focus on her next book, a story about a woman having an affair with a cop. When officer Nathaniel Saint shows up at her cabin door, inspiration comes flooding back. Much like the character from Petra’s book, Saint is married, and he’s willing to be Petra’s muse, helping her get into her characters’ heads. Petra’s book is practically writing itself, but is the game she’s playing a little too dangerous? Does she know when to stop—and, more importantly, is Saint willing to stop? Hoover is no stranger to controversial movie adaptations and internet backlash, but she clarifies in a note to readers that she’s “just a writer writing about a writer” and that no further connections to her own life are contained in these pages—which is a good thing, because the book takes some horrifying twists and turns. Petra finds herself inexplicably attracted to Saint, even as she describes him as “such an asshole,” and her feelings for him veer between love and hate. The novel serves as a meta commentary on the dark romance genre—as Petra puts it, “Even though, as readers, we wouldn’t want to live out some of the fantasies we read about, it doesn’t mean we don’t enjoy reading those things.”
A dark and twisty look at just how far one woman is willing to go to find inspiration.Pub Date: Jan. 13, 2026
ISBN: 9781662539374
Page Count: -
Publisher: Montlake
Review Posted Online: Sept. 27, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2025
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