An engrossing, satisfying account of the development and disintegration of a lesser-known immigrant community.
Two 18th-century German families risk everything to join a pioneer movement in hopes of forging a better future.
It’s the late 1700s, and 12-year-old Karl Schuler lives in a small town in what is now southwestern Germany. He’s orphaned and sent to a local miller, where he learns a trade and grows up. As he begins to plan his own family, he learns of a government program sponsoring migration to the frontier territory along the Danube River—almost 1,000 miles away. With new wife Inge, he begins the long journey to a new life. Miles away in Eastern Bavaria, Peter Mueller, a farmer and cabinetmaker, struggles to support his family in the face of failed crops and high rents. He also hears that the government is offering free land to those willing to work hard for a fresh start. Leaving in the dead of night to avoid his nobleman landlord, Peter; his wife, Katherine; and their four children set out for the Danube. The two families only intersect briefly on the arduous journey to their new homes, but both show determination and deep humanity as they become part of an extensive German immigrant community on the Serbian border. Six generations later, this community finds itself facing daunting, life-changing challenges as the rise of German fascism creates deep divisions in their new homeland. Fischer’s plain writing style ably animates the various ethnic groups of the Serbian frontier. He skillfully weaves together social history, historical events, and details of day-to-day life, from the workings of an 18th-century grain mill to the construction of a feather mattress in the 1930s. Tender stories of familial love and the joys and losses of pioneer life yield greater themes of belonging and alienation, the atrocities of war, and the complexity of ethnic and national loyalties. If the central characters seem sometimes too upright and decent to be absolutely believable, it’s easily forgiven against the backdrop of the challenges they face.
An engrossing, satisfying account of the development and disintegration of a lesser-known immigrant community.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: 678
Publisher: Manuscript
Review Posted Online: Jan. 24, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2022
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
The best-selling author of tearjerkers like Angel Falls (2000) serves up yet another mountain of mush, topped off with...
Talk-show queen takes tumble as millions jeer.
Nora Bridges is a wildly popular radio spokesperson for family-first virtues, but her loyal listeners don't know that she walked out on her husband and teenaged daughters years ago and didn't look back. Now that a former lover has sold racy pix of naked Nora and horny himself to a national tabloid, her estranged daughter Ruby, an unsuccessful stand-up comic in Los Angeles, has been approached to pen a tell-all. Greedy for the fat fee she's been promised, Ruby agrees and heads for the San Juan Islands, eager to get reacquainted with the mom she plans to betray. Once in the family homestead, nasty Ruby alternately sulks and glares at her mother, who is temporarily wheelchair-bound as a result of a post-scandal car crash. Uncaring, Ruby begins writing her side of the story when she's not strolling on the beach with former sweetheart Dean Sloan, the son of wealthy socialites who basically ignored him and his gay brother Eric. Eric, now dying of cancer and also in a wheelchair, has returned to the island. This dismal threesome catch up on old times, recalling their childhood idylls on the island. After Ruby's perfect big sister Caroline shows up, there's another round of heartfelt talk. Nora gradually reveals the truth about her unloving husband and her late father's alcoholism, which led her to seek the approval of others at the cost of her own peace of mind. And so on. Ruby is aghast to discover that she doesn't know everything after all, but Dean offers her subdued comfort. Happy endings await almost everyone—except for readers of this nobly preachy snifflefest.
The best-selling author of tearjerkers like Angel Falls (2000) serves up yet another mountain of mush, topped off with syrupy platitudes about life and love.Pub Date: March 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-609-60737-5
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2001
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