A poetic quartet of stories for readers with a taste for folklore and mystery.
DiPego’s story collection looks at love, loss, and the search for the meaning of life in a small Illinois town.
In the fictional town of Indian Lake, Illinois, the author’s experiences of growing up by the northern lakes are given fictional life in four short stories—three set in the 1950s and one in 1989. In “The Man With Three Fists,” farmer Hank Wenslow prays for the arrival of rain while grieving his infant son’s death and loss of connection with his wife, Sandra. A mysterious stranger offers to help, “calling on wisdom ancient and eternal,” which leaves Wenslow obsessed with a goddess he does not understand. “Lake Town Dead” expands upon the theme of grief, following the search for peace by three deceased individuals who are trapped as ghosts, watching their families mourn. DiPego’s stories are imbued with a sense of magical realism, with his narratives embracing themes of fairy tales and folklore; they are a lyrical pleasure to read as are the author’s forays into the mystical while presenting what feel like very three-dimensional, real characters. “The Painter Loon,” the third story, also delves into the magical as sign painter F. Van Loon finds himself haunted by the presence of Myrna Gresha, a beautiful, ghostly woman at his home as he settles into the town of Indian Lake. The final story, “Reunion,” deals most overtly with the search for life’s meaning and second-guessing choices made. In this tale, Fred Carli returns to his hometown of Indian Lake for a high school reunion. Though he left two years after he graduated high school, what he finds when he returns is himself, somehow living a parallel life, as if he had stayed. Though the magical elements are initially jarring, this is a coherent collection of stories that settles into a rhythm as compelling as it is unexpected.
A poetic quartet of stories for readers with a taste for folklore and mystery.Pub Date: March 15, 2024
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: 242
Publisher: manuscript
Review Posted Online: Jan. 15, 2024
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
Though uneven, this is still a pleasurable, comforting read.
Infertility, family secrets, and alpacas all figure in Quindlen’s latest meditation on mothering and domesticity.
Polly’s life looks enviable. Happily married to the adoring Mark—a vet at the Bronx Zoo—she teaches English at a private Manhattan girls’ school and loves her work. She has a protective older brother and close girlfriends, who’ve formed a book club where no one is expected to read the book. But Polly desperately wants a child and, at 42, knows time is running out. She and Mark have gone through endless fertility treatments, to no avail. Meantime, Polly’s friends have given her a DNA kit as a jokey birthday gift, and something mysterious shows up in the test results. Then, out of nowhere, a young woman contacts her, suggesting they may be related. That’s not all: Polly feels estranged from her mother, a revered judge who’s insufficiently maternal in her daughter’s view. Her father has always cherished her, but he’s in a nursing home now with a rapidly failing mind. And something is amiss with her best pal, Sarah. Quindlen’s trademark empathy is evident throughout, and her wry humor leavens some of the serious goings-on. Early on, Mark and Polly visit a fertility clinic with photos of babies in the waiting room; for Polly, “it felt…like a Weight Watchers facility with hot fudge sundae pictures on the wall.” Then we meet these charming alpacas, humming and pronking, on a farm run by an earth mother, whose wisdom will help Polly get on with her life. The plot swerves around a bit, there may be one surplus narrative thread (e.g., Polly’s star student Josephine running aground after graduation), and at the end, the author ties things up too neatly, pushing the “circle of life” theme too hard.
Though uneven, this is still a pleasurable, comforting read.Pub Date: Feb. 24, 2026
ISBN: 9780593734605
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: Nov. 22, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2026
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