Well-developed characters bring new life to a familiar and frightening story.
In this historical novel, two extended German families are torn apart by conflicting loyalties during the rise of Nazism.
Claus Diedrich “Diech” Wessel, the youngest of nine children, was born in Ahrensflucht, Germany, a small village by the North Sea. After digging trenches in the military during World War I, he decides to never again participate in another war. When he returns home, he finds work as a carpenter’s apprentice, which he gradually builds into a career. In the fall of 1922, Diech marries Marie Lucia “Mimi” Hornbostel, and the couple moves in with Mimi’s parents on her family’s farm in Westersode. Their son, Karl-Heinz “Heinzie” Wessel, is born in 1923, but the German economy is fragile, and there’s little opportunity for Diech to buy his own land. Mimi has family living in Absecon, New Jersey, and in 1927, the Wessels cross the Atlantic. Despite confronting some early anti-immigrant hostility, they begin creating their own American dream. Back in Germany, members of the extended Wessel family worry about the rise of Adolf Hitler, who becomes chancellor in 1933. Diech’s brother Fish writes to him: “Who are we but ordinary people caught up in a massive shift, like an earthquake….What can we do but ride out the storm and hope for the best?” From here, the novel—a fictionalized version of author Wessel’s own family history—becomes more ominous and relevant as readers watch the gradual indoctrination of the German populace; Heinzie’s cousin and best friend in Germany, for instance, proudly joins the Hitler Youth. After Mimi returns, in 1934, to her home country with Heinzie and his younger brother Louie to care for her recently widowed mother, readers will find it chilling to observe the fully Americanized Heinzie become a young Nazi. Although the historical details of book burnings and Kristallnacht, portrayed here, are well-known, the author’s strength is in his portrayal of ordinary Germans swept into the increasing horror—some actively, others passively—while others are stilled by fear.
Well-developed characters bring new life to a familiar and frightening story.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: -
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: Sept. 15, 2023
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
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
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