A weird and darkly funny novel from a writer to watch.
A man loses his skin, and possibly his sanity, in this bizarre debut.
Gabriel, the narrator of Smith’s novel, is having a rough time. As the book opens, the London man is in a doctor’s office; he thinks he might have a concussion after having been hit by his teenage nephew. The doctor gives him the all-clear for his head but notes he might have eczema. As it turns out, it’s something much weirder and much worse: Large pieces of skin begin to peel from his body. That’s not the only setback he’s facing—his girlfriend has abruptly moved out of their shared flat, and his father recently died, which Gabriel isn’t handling well. (It doesn’t help that he calls one of the mourners at the funeral a “stupid purple bitch.”) Gabriel moves to the house his parents shared—his mother is in a nursing home—in order to prep it for sale, but he doesn’t get much done except drink, smoke weed, and read mysteriously changing manuscripts left behind by his parents. He also encounters a mysterious boy and girl who he thinks might have a connection to his parents’ stories, along with a mysterious man with a deer face mask. This is a bizarre novel, but not in a self-conscious way—Smith genuinely seems to care about his characters, especially the can’t-win-for-losing Gabriel, and it’s not quirky for quirk’s sake. While his prose can be unadorned to a fault at times, his dialogue shines, and there’s an undercurrent of humor throughout that leavens the book’s darkness. (In one section, Gabriel says that he slicks his hair back “like a movie Italian.”) This novel isn’t for everyone, but readers who appreciate the morbidly funny and the just plain morbid will find a lot to love in these pages.
A weird and darkly funny novel from a writer to watch.Pub Date: June 4, 2024
ISBN: 9780593656877
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Penguin Press
Review Posted Online: April 19, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2024
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
Great crime fiction.
An apparent suicide threatens to destroy an Irish farm town in the final volume of French’s Cal Hooper trilogy.
In the fictional western Ireland townland of Ardnakelty, “there’s a girl going after missing.” Soon young Rachel Holohan is found dead in the river. Shortly before, she had stopped at Lena Dunne’s home, and nothing had seemed amiss. The medical examiner determines she’d swallowed antifreeze, and he presumes she then fell from a bridge into the water. The medical examiner and the town agree she’d died by suicide. But there is far more to the plot: 16-year-old Trey Reddy thinks Tommy Moynihan murdered Rachel. Moynihan doles out favors and punishments to the local townsfolk, who know it’s best not to cross him. Now rumors spread that Moynihan wants land and has a secret plan to forcibly buy up parcels from the locals. A factory will be built, or a great big data center, or who knows what. If Tommy’s son, Eugene, can get elected to the local council, then compulsory purchase orders for land will follow, and the farms will disappear. Eugene, who’d been romantically involved with Rachel, is wonderfully described as “on the weedy edge of good-looking” and just fine as long as you “don’t have high expectations in the way of chins.” Lena is engaged to the American Cal Hooper, an ex-cop turned woodworker. They are “more or less raising” Trey, and these three core characters are drawn into the mystery of Rachel’s death and may have to face the looming clouds of civilizational change for Ardnakelty. Lena is chastised for “asking your wee questions all round the townland,” and Trey wants to quit school, against Cal’s advice. Finally, the story’s best line: “You can’t go killing people just because they deserve it.”
Great crime fiction.Pub Date: March 31, 2026
ISBN: 9780593493465
Page Count: 496
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: Dec. 26, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2026
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