Funny, original, and overflowing with wisdom—this is an absolute delight of a debut.
Eleanor Liu is a “chronic avoider”—she runs from every difficulty life presents, but how long can she outrun grief?
After dropping out of her Ph.D. program in neuroscience at New York's Mount Sinai Hospital, Eleanor works as a lab tech for her husband, Ellis, while continuing her personal research on the side. Penny, Eleanor’s former supervisor, disapproves of the arrangement because she believes Eleanor is a good scientist who’s not living up to her potential. Eleanor, however, is comfortable and thinks to herself, “Yes, I have had to face the fact that I quit. I have had to watch as my friends, now in their fourth year, settle into their labs and their research projects. But I’m not ashamed. Generally, I’m content. There’s hope for quitters, too. There’s a paradise on the other side of giving up.” This attitude extends to all aspects of her life. After her mother’s death, Eleanor’s behavior becomes more erratic until she doesn’t even understand her own actions—pursuing an affair with a colleague, stealing a marmoset, and abandoning her husband to return to her childhood home. Rather than confront her grief and the ways she’s complicated her own life, she allows her actions to put her job and relationship in jeopardy. The book is primarily centered on Eleanor in the present day, but there are chapters that focus on her parents’ relationship and the building of their business, her older sister, and the family’s dynamic. These chapters enrich the characters by allowing space for their individual stories to be told and provide insight into how Eleanor’s upbringing influences her present life. They also offer up the idea that her parents’ experiences have had an impact on her life through the ways they inform the advice they give her. Now that her mother is gone, Eleanor—who acknowledges how much her mother’s approval and disapproval influenced her choices—must consider how to live her life and make sense of it on her own.
Funny, original, and overflowing with wisdom—this is an absolute delight of a debut.Pub Date: June 6, 2023
ISBN: 9781638930525
Page Count: 336
Publisher: SJP Lit/Zando
Review Posted Online: April 24, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2023
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
Have tissues ready as you read this. A small package will do.
A love story about a life of second chances.
In Nassau, in the Bahamas, casino detective Vincent LaPorta grills Alfie Logan, who’d come up a winner three times in a row at the roulette table and walked away with $2 million. “How did you do it?” asks the detective. Alfie calmly denies cheating. You wired all the money to a Gianna Rule, LaPorta says. Why? To explain, Alfie produces a composition book with the words “For the Boss, to Be Read Upon My Death” written on the cover. Read this for answers, Alfie suggests, calling it a love story. His mother had passed along to him a strange trait: He can say “Twice!” and go back to a specific time and place to have a do-over. But it only works once for any particular moment, and then he must live with the new consequences. He can only do this for himself and can’t prevent anyone from dying. Alfie regularly uses his power—failing to impress a girl the first time, he finds out more about her, goes back in time, and presto! She likes him. The premise is of course not credible—LaPorta doesn’t buy it either—but it’s intriguing. Most people would probably love to go back and unsay something. The story’s focus is on Alfie’s love for Gianna and whether it’s requited, unrequited, or both. In any case, he’s obsessed with her. He’s a good man, though, an intelligent person with ordinary human failings and a solid moral compass. Albom writes in a warm, easy style that transports the reader to a world of second chances and what-ifs, where spirituality lies close to the surface but never intrudes on the story. Though a cynic will call it sappy, anyone who is sick to their core from the daily news will enjoy this escape from reality.
Have tissues ready as you read this. A small package will do.Pub Date: Oct. 7, 2025
ISBN: 9780062406682
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: July 18, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2025
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
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