A brisk, contemplative look at ideas of faith and heaven.
Chung’s spiritual novel explores life’s big questions.
Lucas is an American who lives in Paris. His wife has been dead for seven years, and he visits her grave every week. Although he describes himself as a “devout Christian,” he sometimes struggles with his faith. Lucas enjoys his work as a tour guide, ferrying visitors from Charles de Gaulle Airport to destinations like the Louvre. In the course of his work, he meets an assortment of people. Ivanov is an older Russian man who once served as a Soviet soldier; when he visits Paris, he experiences a “surge of complex emotions rising within.” Annie is a British woman in her 80s who is exploring the world on her own. She and Lucas discuss the existence of heaven, positing that “There’s only love and goodness there, and the people we cherish are there, waiting patiently for us.” Wei Yixin is an artist who has a work in the Louvre. She tells Lucas about a painting she made based on a dream about a church, and Lucas is intrigued—perhaps some kind of divine intervention is in play. Lucas takes Wei Yixin to his pastor so they can discuss the subject. After the pastor views the painting Wei Yixin made, he is largely unimpressed, explaining that “Dreams like this merely reflect one’s inner obsessions” and likely have nothing to do with the voice of God. The experience, though, conjures up some questions for Lucas, like, “Does God exist, and who is He?” and “What does He want us to do?”
Such questions propel Lucas as he talks to various characters. Later, similar ideas inspire his daughter, an influencer named Georgia, to post a message about faith. The narrative is a fast read and events move along quickly; people like Annie are not in Lucas’ life for very long. The story builds interest as the reader anticipates who will talk with Lucas next and what will be done with the knowledge that Lucas gleans. (A Muslim man explains his view of the afterlife: “Almighty Allah gathers every pure soul back into His embrace. That’s where our heaven lies.”) Though the novel explores heavy, age-old considerations about God and life’s purpose, the narrative tends to be light on debate. Certain events leave Lucas overcome with emotion, as when he “suddenly broke into uncontrollable sobs, tears streaming down his face” while reflecting on his wife, but there is not much in the way of direct conflict or suspense. Georgia receives some snarky responses to her post on faith, like, “If God really exists, then logic says He must be artificial intelligence—always among us, quietly watching,” but they do not do much to sway her. The story has a more meditative quality, but Chung has points to make: Georgia reflects, “even those devoted to materialism or healthy living rarely feel they’ve reached paradise while alive.” As people pursue their own ideas of happiness in life, the question remains: “Will we ever reach that heaven we’ve imagined?”
A brisk, contemplative look at ideas of faith and heaven.Pub Date: July 7, 2025
ISBN: 9781069560001
Page Count: 193
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: Nov. 13, 2025
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Hokey plot, good fun.
A business executive becomes an unjustly wanted man.
Walter Nash attends his estranged father Tiberius’ funeral, where Ty’s Army buddy, Shock, rips into him for not being the kind of man the Vietnam vet Ty was. Instead, Nash is the successful head of acquisitions for Sybaritic Investments, where he earns a handsome paycheck that supports his wife, Judith, and his teenage daughter, Maggie. An FBI agent approaches Nash after the funeral and asks him to be a mole in his company, because the feds consider chief executive Rhett Temple “a criminal consorting with some very dangerous people.” It’s “a chance to be a hero,” the agent says, while admitting that Nash’s personal and financial risks are immense. Indeed, readers soon find Temple and a cohort standing over a fresh corpse and wondering what to do with it. Temple is not an especially talented executive, and he frets that his hated father, the chairman of the board, will eventually replace him with Nash. (Father-son relationships are not glorified in this tale.) Temple is cartoonishly rotten. He answers to a mysterious woman in Asia, whom he rightly fears. He kills. He beds various women including Judith, whom he tries to turn against Nash. The story’s dramatic turn follows Maggie’s kidnapping, where Nash is wrongly accused. Believing Nash’s innocence, Shock helps him change completely with intense exercise, bulking up and tattooing his body, and learning how to fight and kill. Eventually he looks nothing like the dweeb who’d once taken up tennis instead of football, much to Ty’s undying disgust. Finding the victim and the kidnappers becomes his sole mission. As a child watching his father hunt, Nash could never have killed a living thing. But with his old life over—now he will kill, and he will take any risks necessary. His transformation is implausible, though at least he’s not green like the Incredible Hulk. Loose ends abound by the end as he ignores a plea to “not get on that damn plane,” so a sequel is a necessity.
Hokey plot, good fun.Pub Date: Nov. 11, 2025
ISBN: 9781538757987
Page Count: 448
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Review Posted Online: Aug. 29, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2025
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
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