A satisfying story of healing.
Two families move forward from loss and grief on the shoreline of western Michigan in Chalker’s novel.
Five years out of college in the summer of 2023, Tara finds her life is at a crossroads. Her relationship with her live-in boyfriend ended six months ago, her job organizing fundraisers for a nonprofit is petering out, and her dear Aunt Becca recently passed away from cancer. Aunt Becca’s widower, Uncle Robb, is reeling from Aunt Becca’s death. Their home in Empire, Michigan, near Sleeping Bear Dunes, has always been Tara’s refuge from the “complex chaos” of her family, so she is happy to move in with Uncle Robb as they both grieve and she tries to figure out a fulfilling career. In another town near Empire, 13-year-old Maria, whose parents and sister have been deported because of their immigration status, lives with her grandmother, who has just had a stroke. Worried that she will be put into foster care, Maria runs away and hides in a farmhouse that is part of a Parks Service nature preserve near Empire. Tara’s dog Taffy discovers Maria’s hiding place. With her grandmother’s permission, Maria stays with Tara and Uncle Robb as her grandmother undergoes rehab nearby. Having Tara, Taffy, and Maria around helps renew Uncle Robb’s spirit. Reading Aunt Becca’s journals from 1971, a pivotal year she spent studying in France when she was 20, widens Tara’s perspective. Chalker explores multiple types of loss—ranging from relationships ending to families being torn apart by heartless immigration policies to death—with great empathy in this character-driven novel. The use of Becca’s journals from 1971 effectively illustrates how opportunities for women have changed over the intervening decades. Nature plays an important role as both a literal and emotional refuge, and the beauty of the eastern shoreline of Lake Michigan is vividly evoked: “Gentle waves roll in from the deep navy blue of the water farther out to the shallow aqua water near the shore.”
A satisfying story of healing.Pub Date: Jan. 3, 2025
ISBN: 9798992260700
Page Count: 271
Publisher: Self
Review Posted Online: March 24, 2025
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
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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