A complex and often compelling tale of domestic and spiritual struggle in the Caribbean.
Giordano’s historical series installment charts the unhappy Sharpe marriage as it plays out under the palm trees of the Bahamas.
This second book of the author’s Strange Eden series opens in 1792, on the shores of colonial Nassau. Eliza Sharpe is struggling in an unhappy marriage to well-to-do soldier and nobleman Charles Sharpe, and her union is about to get even more complicated. Although Eliza tries to hide it—from herself as much as anyone else—it becomes obvious, after Charles leaves town on business for the crown, that she’s pregnant. What would be a blessing for most couples feels more like a curse for Eliza, because the child isn’t Charles’ but is, in fact, the product of her love affair with Jean Charles de Longchamp, a spy whom Charles knew well and who was executed not long ago. Mercifully, Charles is away during most of Eliza’s pregnancy. In his absence, Eliza begins to feel as if her baby is the last meaningful connection to her slain lover. However, she’s promised Cleo, an enslaved woman in her home, that she’ll secretly give the baby to her; that way, Eliza can make sure the marital fallout is as minimal as possible. The women hope the child will be born before Charles returns to Nassau, but instead Charles arrives home at the worst possible moment for everyone: mere minutes after Eliza gives birth.
Over the course of Giordano’s novel, readers learn that more is roiling beneath the surface of the Sharpes’ lives than may initially appear. Cleo is a practitioner of Obeah healing and spellcasting, and she’s been helping and protecting Charles since he was a small boy. Eliza has been having strange, vivid dreams that clue her into key events in her husband’s life before he ever met her—and this ability, too, is related to Cleo, whose ultimate aims remain mysterious. The novel, set among the glistening vistas of the Caribbean, offers readers an unpredictable story that achieves an admirable balance of beauty and horror. The backdrop is well rendered throughout: “The calm, glassy surface of the water vanished, and the sea grew more chilly as waves disturbed it. The ocean appeared rough, as if gripped by an invisible wintery hand.” The enslaved people’s interactions with Eliza and Charles, however, seem courteous and friendly to the point that readers will find the depictions uncomfortable: “[Eliza] had never heard Cleo raise her voice before. It was not a slave’s place to act in such a way. But Cleo was so much more than a lowly servant, and they both understood this fact.” In addition, some of the character descriptions feel cliched: “Eliza was fiery and beautiful, maddeningly beautiful. So much so that she herself didn’t quite realize it.” Still, readers learn far more about Eliza, Charles, and Cleo from the choices they make than from their outward appearances, which many will find satisfying in the long run.
A complex and often compelling tale of domestic and spiritual struggle in the Caribbean.Pub Date: June 7, 2024
ISBN: 9798986983424
Page Count: 508
Publisher: Käferhaus Press
Review Posted Online: Aug. 17, 2024
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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
SEEN & HEARD
A pleasant if not entirely convincing tribute to the power of art.
A French art historian’s English-language fiction debut combines the story of a loving relationship between a grandfather and granddaughter with an enlightening discussion of art.
One day, when 10-year-old Mona removes the necklace given to her by her now-dead grandmother, she experiences a frightening, hour-long bout of blindness. Her parents take her to the doctor, who gives her a variety of tests and also advises that she see a psychiatrist. Her grandfather Henry tells her parents that he will take care of that assignment, but instead, he takes Mona on weekly visits to either the Louvre, the Musée d’Orsay, or the Centre Pompidou, where each week they study a single work of art, gazing at it deeply and then discussing its impact and history and the biography of its maker. For the reader’s benefit, Schlesser also describes each of the works in scrupulous detail. As the year goes on, Mona faces the usual challenges of elementary school life and the experiences of being an only child, and slowly begins to understand the causes of her temporary blindness. Primarily an amble through a few dozen of Schlesser’s favorite works of art—some well known and others less so, from Botticelli and da Vinci through Basquiat and Bourgeois—the novel would probably benefit from being read at a leisurely pace. While the dialogue between Henry and the preternaturally patient and precocious Mona sometimes strains credulity, readers who don’t have easy access to the museums of Paris may enjoy this vicarious trip in the company of a guide who focuses equally on that which can be seen and the context that can’t be. Come for the novel, stay for the introductory art history course.
A pleasant if not entirely convincing tribute to the power of art.Pub Date: Aug. 26, 2025
ISBN: 9798889661115
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Europa Editions
Review Posted Online: June 7, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2025
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
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