A powerful chronicle of the search for peace and identity amid constant disruption.
A Palestinian exile recalls his ordeals as a child and young adult.
This work by the acclaimed Lebanese author Khoury is a follow-up to his novel The Children of the Ghetto: My Name Is Adam (2019). While that novel considered the life and death of its title character in a fragmentary fashion, here Khoury’s approach is more straightforward, if still suffused with irony and anguish. Adam grew up in Lydda, a ghetto formed by Israel during the 1948 expulsion of Palestinians known as the Nakba. As a teenager in the 1960s, Adam escapes his abusive stepfather, finding odd jobs in a garage and a restaurant, eventually landing in Haifa and pursuing the study of Hebrew literature. But he cloaks his Palestinian identity to get by, tweaking his last name slightly (from Dannoun to Danoun). On a class trip to Warsaw, he meets a participant in the Jewish ghetto uprising there, provoking a debate between him and his teacher about whether it’s best to stand one’s ground or live in exile. Khoury has long been focused on the aftereffects of the Nakba, most notably in Gate of the Sun (2006), emphasizing the cruelty of the forced expulsion and the confusions of statelessness; Adam satirizes the bureaucratese that makes him a “present absentee” in Israel. But though death and loss are key themes (major plot points involve murder and suicide), romance is also central to the novel, as Adam recalls his intense, hopeful, and difficult relationships with women. That doesn’t soften the harshness of the events Khoury chronicles, but it does add lyrical and deeper elements to what’s ultimately a tragic story.
A powerful chronicle of the search for peace and identity amid constant disruption.Pub Date: Nov. 12, 2024
ISBN: 9781962770064
Page Count: 473
Publisher: Archipelago
Review Posted Online: July 19, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2024
IN THE NEWS
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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