A powerful journey through emotional devastation led by some unforgettable characters.
Joiner offers a meditative novel about love and abandonment set in the picturesque Japanese countryside.
Things are not going well for Sedge, a Westerner living in Japan. Until just before the action of the novel begins, he owned and operated a ceramics shop with his Japanese wife, Nozomi. When Nozomi leaves him, without warning, for a highly talented and respected ceramicist, Sedge is devastated—the abandonment would be bad enough, but Nozomi left with all their money, too. Stuck in dire straits, Sedge receives a lifeline from an unlikely source: Nozomi’s brother, Takahashi, and his wife, Yuki. They offer him free residence at their ryokan in the hot spring resort town of Yamanaka Onsen under the condition that he teach English to the inn’s staff. The situation is complicated by the fact that Mariko (the wife of the man Nozomi ran off with) works there, too, and is keen to meet Sedge. They soon grow close when Sedge—much to the dismay of Takahashi and Yuki, who want him to keep a low-profile—begins teaching Mariko privately at her home. There, he meets her stepson, Riku, a bright if troubled child who was also left behind when his father fled. As Sedge and Mariko bond over their shared trauma, they discover they have much in common—in particular, their love for herons. As their companionship evolves into sex and romance, their need for secrecy only increases—neither of them has heard from either of their runaway spouses, and things could implode at any moment. Joiner’s novel is full of pastoral beauty: “Two or three herons stood in each field…perhaps thirty fields altogether unfurling toward the sea. Even the river, miniaturized by distance, had herons circling above it.” Through clean prose eliciting a placid calm (which deftly evokes the landscape), readers spend time with characters who feel full and human, and whose dramas, in their quiet way, will leave a lasting impression.
A powerful journey through emotional devastation led by some unforgettable characters.Pub Date: Nov. 21, 2023
ISBN: 9781611720815
Page Count: 264
Publisher: Stone Bridge Press
Review Posted Online: June 5, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2024
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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