A thoughtfully imagined, if not always subtle, critique of our fractured moment.
A doctor strives to preserve his family in the face of civic collapse.
National Book Award winner Packer—for The Unwinding (2013)—wrote a pair of novels in the 1990s before establishing himself as a prolific reporter on the American scene. For his first work of fiction in the 21st century, he funnels his collected observations of a broken America into a dystopian allegory. Hugo Rustin, the novel’s protagonist, is a doctor and self-proclaimed champion of “humanism” who’s committed to finding common ground among factions. But since an unspecified “Emergency” has disrupted the country, everyone is too divided for such sentiment. The nation is split between largely urban and educated Burghers, rural and rough-hewn Yeomen, and roving Strangers caught in the middle. And the Burghers are internally split among the spitefully unemployed (Excess Burghers), oversharing woke mobs, and those who think high-tech bionics offer a way out (Better Humans). Plotwise, the novel follows Hugo and his 14-year-old daughter, Selva, as they head to Yeoman country to conduct a wellness check on a Stranger his wife had befriended, but it’s a journey into ideological bantering as much as a trip into a forest. As the editor of two collections of George Orwell’s writing, Packer is alert to the clarifying power of a clear allegory as well as potent storytelling. But while the novel is a crystal-clear commentary on a broken America in the Trump era, Packer can’t quite shake off years of operating in pundit mode, which makes for some clunky, declamatory passages: “Some mechanism beyond the timepiece itself seemed to have broken, as if the spirit in the civic machine that attuned everyone to its rhythms and kept the regular hours of their lives no longer moved.” Propulsive closing chapters return him to thriller mode, but he tests readers’ patience on the way there.
A thoughtfully imagined, if not always subtle, critique of our fractured moment.Pub Date: Nov. 11, 2025
ISBN: 9780374614720
Page Count: 416
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: Aug. 2, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 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
A touching portrait of courage and friendship.
A lifetime of friendship endures many upheavals.
Ellie and Homa, two young girls growing up in Tehran, meet at school in the early 1950s. Though their families are very different, they become close friends. After the death of Ellie’s father, she and her difficult mother must adapt to their reduced circumstances. Homa’s more warm and loving family lives a more financially constrained life, and her father, a communist, is politically active—to his own detriment and that of his family’s welfare. When Ellie’s mother remarries and she and Ellie relocate to a more exclusive part of the city, the girls become separated. They reunite years later when Homa is admitted to Ellie’s elite high school. Now a political firebrand with aspirations to become a judge and improve the rights of women in her factionalized homeland, Homa works toward scholastic success and begins practicing political activism. Ellie follows a course, plotted originally by her mother, toward marriage. The tortuous path of the girls’ adult friendship over the following decades is played out against regime change, political persecution, and devastating loss. Ellie’s well-intentioned but naïve approach stands in stark contrast to Homa’s commitment to human rights, particularly for women, and her willingness to risk personal safety to secure those rights. As narrated by Ellie, the girls’ story incorporates frequent references to Iranian food, customs, and beliefs common in the years of tumult and reforms accompanying the Iranian Revolution. Themes of jealousy—even in close friendships—and the role of the shir zan, the courageous “lion women” of Iran who effect change, recur through the narrative. The heartaches associated with emigration are explored along with issues of personal sacrifice for the sake of the greater good (no matter how remote it may seem).
A touching portrait of courage and friendship.Pub Date: July 2, 2024
ISBN: 9781668036587
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Gallery Books/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: April 19, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2024
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