An impressive historical novel featuring a complex hero on a perilous diplomatic mission.
One of Charlemagne’s 12 paladins, Sebastian embarks on vital expeditions, wrestles with personal problems, and grows disillusioned with the ways of the world.
This second installment of a historical fiction series presents readers with a more mature, restless Sebastian. His life is turned upside down when he learns in 785 that Konrad, his nemesis cousin and first husband of his wife, Adela, is not dead as was widely believed. Despite Konrad’s abuse of Adela and evil reputation, the devout woman leaves Sebastian for a convent. In the eyes of the church, she is still Konrad’s wife. At first, Sebastian goes after Konrad, unbeknown to Charlemagne, barely escaping with his life. Back at court, he sidesteps a proposition by the king’s new young wife, Fastrada. Sebastian gladly sets out on a number of scouting and spying operations before Charlemagne sends him on a major diplomatic mission to Constantinople, Jerusalem, and Baghdad. While his work for Charlemagne eases his brooding over Adela, he also tries to bond with his eldest son, Milo, by bringing him along. Like Odysseus, Sebastian sees many wonders, encounters myriad dangers, faces a temptress, makes friends and enemies, and meets with unexpected betrayals and support as he overcomes obstacles in his attempt to return home. As Sebastian’s existential crisis grows, Milo urges him to visit Magdala, a young mystic and seer in Jerusalem. She sends him into the desert near Gethsemane, where Sebastian, like Jesus, fasts and finds some inner peace. As in the first installment, Steger’s (Sebastian’s Way: The Pathfinder, 2013) brilliantly executed narrative is filled with allusions and historical details, vibrantly bringing to life the people and places of the eighth-century world (“Charlemagne loved learning and luxury, listening to stories, singing, laughing, and swimming. But he was a singularly focused monarch. At this point in his life, he was still very ambitious, ruthless in the pursuit of his goals, supremely confident and fearless. He was the most important man in the realm, and he knew it. It filled him with satisfaction”). And once again, the author gives readers a stand-alone volume starring a multifaceted protagonist while deftly creating anticipation for future episodes. This lively series, packed with action and intrigue, is a continuing delight for fans of historical fiction and well-crafted tales of adventure and derring-do.
An impressive historical novel featuring a complex hero on a perilous diplomatic mission.Pub Date: Dec. 15, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-5320-1223-5
Page Count: 380
Publisher: iUniverse
Review Posted Online: June 30, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2018
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Packed with riveting drama and painful truths, this book powerfully illustrates the devastation of abuse—and the strength of...
Hoover’s (November 9, 2015, etc.) latest tackles the difficult subject of domestic violence with romantic tenderness and emotional heft.
At first glance, the couple is edgy but cute: Lily Bloom runs a flower shop for people who hate flowers; Ryle Kincaid is a surgeon who says he never wants to get married or have kids. They meet on a rooftop in Boston on the night Ryle loses a patient and Lily attends her abusive father’s funeral. The provocative opening takes a dark turn when Lily receives a warning about Ryle’s intentions from his sister, who becomes Lily’s employee and close friend. Lily swears she’ll never end up in another abusive home, but when Ryle starts to show all the same warning signs that her mother ignored, Lily learns just how hard it is to say goodbye. When Ryle is not in the throes of a jealous rage, his redeeming qualities return, and Lily can justify his behavior: “I think we needed what happened on the stairwell to happen so that I would know his past and we’d be able to work on it together,” she tells herself. Lily marries Ryle hoping the good will outweigh the bad, and the mother-daughter dynamics evolve beautifully as Lily reflects on her childhood with fresh eyes. Diary entries fancifully addressed to TV host Ellen DeGeneres serve as flashbacks to Lily’s teenage years, when she met her first love, Atlas Corrigan, a homeless boy she found squatting in a neighbor’s house. When Atlas turns up in Boston, now a successful chef, he begs Lily to leave Ryle. Despite the better option right in front of her, an unexpected complication forces Lily to cut ties with Atlas, confront Ryle, and try to end the cycle of abuse before it’s too late. The relationships are portrayed with compassion and honesty, and the author’s note at the end that explains Hoover’s personal connection to the subject matter is a must-read.
Packed with riveting drama and painful truths, this book powerfully illustrates the devastation of abuse—and the strength of the survivors.Pub Date: Aug. 2, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-5011-1036-8
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Atria
Review Posted Online: May 30, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2016
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
Too beholden to sentimentality and cliché, this novel fails to establish a uniquely realized perspective.
Hunter’s debut novel tracks the experiences of her family members during the Holocaust.
Sol and Nechuma Kurc, wealthy, cultured Jews in Radom, Poland, are successful shop owners; they and their grown children live a comfortable lifestyle. But that lifestyle is no protection against the onslaught of the Holocaust, which eventually scatters the members of the Kurc family among several continents. Genek, the oldest son, is exiled with his wife to a Siberian gulag. Halina, youngest of all the children, works to protect her family alongside her resistance-fighter husband. Addy, middle child, a composer and engineer before the war breaks out, leaves Europe on one of the last passenger ships, ending up thousands of miles away. Then, too, there are Mila and Felicia, Jakob and Bella, each with their own share of struggles—pain endured, horrors witnessed. Hunter conducted extensive research after learning that her grandfather (Addy in the book) survived the Holocaust. The research shows: her novel is thorough and precise in its details. It’s less precise in its language, however, which frequently relies on cliché. “You’ll get only one shot at this,” Halina thinks, enacting a plan to save her husband. “Don’t botch it.” Later, Genek, confronting a routine bit of paperwork, must decide whether or not to hide his Jewishness. “That form is a deal breaker,” he tells himself. “It’s life and death.” And: “They are low, it seems, on good fortune. And something tells him they’ll need it.” Worse than these stale phrases, though, are the moments when Hunter’s writing is entirely inadequate for the subject matter at hand. Genek, describing the gulag, calls the nearest town “a total shitscape.” This is a low point for Hunter’s writing; elsewhere in the novel, it’s stronger. Still, the characters remain flat and unknowable, while the novel itself is predictable. At this point, more than half a century’s worth of fiction and film has been inspired by the Holocaust—a weighty and imposing tradition. Hunter, it seems, hasn’t been able to break free from her dependence on it.
Too beholden to sentimentality and cliché, this novel fails to establish a uniquely realized perspective.Pub Date: Feb. 14, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-399-56308-9
Page Count: 416
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: Nov. 21, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2016
BOOK TO SCREEN
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