A meandering but insightful tale of self-discovery.
This supernatural mystery centers on a divorced father who searches for meaning in an eccentric, remote village in Wisconsin.
James Roslyn mourns the death of his beloved grandfather Hugh Casey, who helped raise him and older brother, Alan. While perusing Hugh’s bountiful library, James stumbles on a decades-old note of a visit to Aanakwad, “the Village in the cloud.” It was a memorable experience for Hugh, who hoped to one day return—likely the proposed trip that James passed on months before his grandfather’s death. James decides to find Aanakwad, with Hugh’s ashes and Alan accompanying him. The village turns out to be a secluded, peaceful spot, where people of the Ojibwe tribe welcome them. But James, who believes he “failed” at marriage and questions his faith in God, strives for a way to give his life meaning. Will he find his purpose in his recent vivid dreams or with a certain tribeswoman? Whatever the case, he aims his obsession at catching “the mighty Esox,” a mysterious, colossal fish that Hugh encountered years ago. Martin steeps this book in obscurity, as narrator James has a rather vague goal of wanting the world to “make sense.” It’s hardly surprising when his thoughts spin off into philosophical musings, not unlike some of his conversations with villagers. But James is a relatable protagonist, burdened by his familial loss and his divorce and determined to be a good father to his son. The author writes crisp, vibrant passages, notwithstanding occasionally awkward phrases (“Our selfishness is only self-serving”). The novel’s highlight is the Ojibwe chief’s ominous tale of two sisters—essentially the village’s origin story. The yarn foreshadows the final act, which takes an unexpected, riveting turn, while the open ending befits a story that thrives on intangibles. Full-color and black-and-white illustrations, courtesy of Martin and “A.I. art generating programs,” teem with surreal imagery and nude women.
A meandering but insightful tale of self-discovery.Pub Date: June 7, 2023
ISBN: 979-8397569835
Page Count: 372
Publisher: Self
Review Posted Online: Sept. 28, 2023
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Still, a respectful and absorbing page-turner.
Hannah’s new novel is an homage to the extraordinary courage and endurance of Frenchwomen during World War II.
In 1995, an elderly unnamed widow is moving into an Oregon nursing home on the urging of her controlling son, Julien, a surgeon. This trajectory is interrupted when she receives an invitation to return to France to attend a ceremony honoring passeurs: people who aided the escape of others during the war. Cut to spring, 1940: Viann has said goodbye to husband Antoine, who's off to hold the Maginot line against invading Germans. She returns to tending her small farm, Le Jardin, in the Loire Valley, teaching at the local school and coping with daughter Sophie’s adolescent rebellion. Soon, that world is upended: The Germans march into Paris and refugees flee south, overrunning Viann’s land. Her long-estranged younger sister, Isabelle, who has been kicked out of multiple convent schools, is sent to Le Jardin by Julien, their father in Paris, a drunken, decidedly unpaternal Great War veteran. As the depredations increase in the occupied zone—food rationing, systematic looting, and the billeting of a German officer, Capt. Beck, at Le Jardin—Isabelle’s outspokenness is a liability. She joins the Resistance, volunteering for dangerous duty: shepherding downed Allied airmen across the Pyrenees to Spain. Code-named the Nightingale, Isabelle will rescue many before she's captured. Meanwhile, Viann’s journey from passive to active resistance is less dramatic but no less wrenching. Hannah vividly demonstrates how the Nazis, through starvation, intimidation and barbarity both casual and calculated, demoralized the French, engineering a community collapse that enabled the deportations and deaths of more than 70,000 Jews. Hannah’s proven storytelling skills are ideally suited to depicting such cataclysmic events, but her tendency to sentimentalize undermines the gravitas of this tale.
Still, a respectful and absorbing page-turner.Pub Date: Feb. 3, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-312-57722-3
Page Count: 448
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: Nov. 19, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2014
BOOK TO SCREEN
SEEN & HEARD
BOOK TO SCREEN
A fresh and clever whodunit with an engaging twist.
A 16-year-old savant uses his Groundhog Day gift to solve his grandfather’s murder.
Nishizawa’s compulsively readable puzzle opens with the discovery of the victim, patriarch Reijiro Fuchigami, sprawled on a futon in the attic of his elegant mansion, where his family has gathered for a consequential announcement about his estate. The weapon seems to be a copper vase lying nearby. Given this setup, the novel might have proceeded as a traditional whodunit but for two delightful features. The first is the ebullient narration of Fuchigami’s youngest grandson, Hisataro, thrust into the role of an investigator with more dedication than finesse. The second is Nishizawa’s clever premise: The 16-year-old Hisataro has lived ever since birth with a condition that occasionally has him falling into a time loop that he calls "the Trap," replaying the same 24 hours of his life exactly nine times before moving on. And, of course, the murder takes place on the first day of one of these loops. Can he solve the murder before the cycle is played out? His initial strategies—never leaving his grandfather’s side, focusing on specific suspects, hiding in order to observe them all—fall frustratingly short. Hisataro’s comical anxiety rises with every failed attempt to identify the culprit. It’s only when he steps back and examines all the evidence that he discovers the solution. First published in 1995, this is the first of Nishizawa’s novels to be translated into English. As for Hisataro, he ultimately concludes that his condition is not a burden but a gift: “Time’s spiral never ends.”
A fresh and clever whodunit with an engaging twist.Pub Date: July 29, 2025
ISBN: 9781805335436
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Pushkin Vertigo
Review Posted Online: July 4, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2025
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