Devotion to the natural world intensifies this tale of memory and forgiveness.
Summer on Michigan’s idyllic Garden Peninsula brings healing for a young woman haunted by tragedy.
The novel opens with a child running from a burning farmhouse as her mother perishes inside. Ten years later, Abby returns to the area, a rural part of Michigan, to help her uncle Dennis with his ecological research mapping the woods. The summer proves a time of reconnection as Abby visits with her Nonna, her aunts, and Brew, the cousin by marriage she’s loved since childhood. As Brew prepares to go to college, Abby is stuck in the past. She has little recollection of the night of the fire but she’s ravaged by guilt that she may have started the blaze, since she was found that night holding a book of matches. Early in the summer, Abby meets a local girl named Seda and the two become inseparable despite their clashing personalities: Abby is a quiet observer, deeply nourished by the natural world, while Seda is unpredictable and just a little bit of trouble—Abby worries she may be responsible for some recent campsite robberies. Abby and Seda find an abandoned cottage that once belonged to an artist and naturalist, and they retreat there over the summer, as Abby begins to remember more from the night of the fire. The novel abounds in descriptions of the natural world and bravely asserts a slow, meditative narrative pace. The land, and the animals on it, become central characters in the story, effecting change in Abby as she confronts some uncomfortable realities. Less successful is a surprising reveal toward the end that belies believability and negates some of the other beautifully wrought passages. Nevertheless, there is much to admire in this tale of resilience wrought from connection to the land.
Devotion to the natural world intensifies this tale of memory and forgiveness.Pub Date: May 5, 2026
ISBN: 9781668221891
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Feb. 16, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 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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