by G.J. Berger ‧ RELEASE DATE: N/A
A highly entertaining, sophisticated look at the Second Punic War through the eyes of an unlikely hero.
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In Berger’s (South of Burnt Rocks—West of the Moon, 2012) epic historical fiction, a young elephant driver from India fights in Hannibal’s army as it marches toward Rome.
When a Syrian caravan visits his small Indian village in 227 B.C., young Ashoka, who’s known for his talent with elephants, is sold into slavery by his father in an effort to protect his family. Ashoka’s strong sense of duty carries him through a harrowing trip across the desert, and after a display of his elephant skills, he’s eventually sold to a Carthaginian senator who orders him to train his elephants for war. The novel follows Ashoka as he’s sold a second time into Hannibal’s army and eventually becomes head mahout, or elephant driver. A treat for ancient history buffs, the novel would especially appeal to fans of TV shows like Spartacus and Rome. Presented mostly from Ashoka’s point of view, the war is seen through the eyes of an Indian slave, conscripted into a war against his will. Nonetheless, highly intuitive and intelligent Ashoka is able to see the war clearly, and he lives to protect his precious elephants. Unlike the zealots in each opposing army, he recognizes that there’s no real good or evil; the Romans and Carthaginians are equally capable of committing atrocities, and though loyal to his commander, Ashoka is not burning with rage against Rome. He serves as a reminder that armies are often made up of reluctant participants. Spanning more than a decade and far from being a tired history lesson, the story flows naturally and never feels rushed. It’s full of interesting facts about Hannibal’s march to Rome, fortified by Berger’s simple yet rich descriptions of battles and the struggles of war. However, Ashoka’s nuanced, personal narrative drives the novel. Though a slave, he never sacrifices his beliefs, and he’s often outspoken with his masters—a habit that earns him disdain from some, though he’s ultimately rewarded for his moral courage.
A highly entertaining, sophisticated look at the Second Punic War through the eyes of an unlikely hero.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: -
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: Nov. 15, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2013
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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by Claire Lombardo ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 25, 2019
Characters flip between bottomless self-regard and pitiless self-loathing while, as late as the second-to-last chapter, yet...
Four Chicago sisters anchor a sharp, sly family story of feminine guile and guilt.
Newcomer Lombardo brews all seven deadly sins into a fun and brimming tale of an unapologetically bougie couple and their unruly daughters. In the opening scene, Liza Sorenson, daughter No. 3, flirts with a groomsman at her sister’s wedding. “There’s four of you?” he asked. “What’s that like?” Her retort: “It’s a vast hormonal hellscape. A marathon of instability and hair products.” Thus begins a story bristling with a particular kind of female intel. When Wendy, the oldest, sets her sights on a mate, she “made sure she left her mark throughout his house—soy milk in the fridge, box of tampons under the sink, surreptitious spritzes of her Bulgari musk on the sheets.” Turbulent Wendy is the novel’s best character, exuding a delectable bratty-ness. The parents—Marilyn, all pluck and busy optimism, and David, a genial family doctor—strike their offspring as impossibly happy. Lombardo levels this vision by interspersing chapters of the Sorenson parents’ early lean times with chapters about their daughters’ wobbly forays into adulthood. The central story unfurls over a single event-choked year, begun by Wendy, who unlatches a closed adoption and springs on her family the boy her stuffy married sister, Violet, gave away 15 years earlier. (The sisters improbably kept David and Marilyn clueless with a phony study-abroad scheme.) Into this churn, Lombardo adds cancer, infidelity, a heart attack, another unplanned pregnancy, a stillbirth, and an office crush for David. Meanwhile, youngest daughter Grace perpetrates a whopper, and “every day the lie was growing like mold, furring her judgment.” The writing here is silky, if occasionally overwrought. Still, the deft touches—a neighborhood fundraiser for a Little Free Library, a Twilight character as erotic touchstone—delight. The class calibrations are divine even as the utter apolitical whiteness of the Sorenson world becomes hard to fathom.
Characters flip between bottomless self-regard and pitiless self-loathing while, as late as the second-to-last chapter, yet another pleasurable tendril of sisterly malice uncurls.Pub Date: June 25, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-385-54425-2
Page Count: 544
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: March 3, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2019
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SEEN & HEARD
by Lisa Jewell ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 24, 2018
Dark and unsettling, this novel’s end arrives abruptly even as readers are still moving at a breakneck speed.
Ten years after her teenage daughter went missing, a mother begins a new relationship only to discover she can't truly move on until she answers lingering questions about the past.
Laurel Mack’s life stopped in many ways the day her 15-year-old daughter, Ellie, left the house to study at the library and never returned. She drifted away from her other two children, Hanna and Jake, and eventually she and her husband, Paul, divorced. Ten years later, Ellie’s remains and her backpack are found, though the police are unable to determine the reasons for her disappearance and death. After Ellie’s funeral, Laurel begins a relationship with Floyd, a man she meets in a cafe. She's disarmed by Floyd’s charm, but when she meets his young daughter, Poppy, Laurel is startled by her resemblance to Ellie. As the novel progresses, Laurel becomes increasingly determined to learn what happened to Ellie, especially after discovering an odd connection between Poppy’s mother and her daughter even as her relationship with Floyd is becoming more serious. Jewell’s (I Found You, 2017, etc.) latest thriller moves at a brisk pace even as she plays with narrative structure: The book is split into three sections, including a first one which alternates chapters between the time of Ellie’s disappearance and the present and a second section that begins as Laurel and Floyd meet. Both of these sections primarily focus on Laurel. In the third section, Jewell alternates narrators and moments in time: The narrator switches to alternating first-person points of view (told by Poppy’s mother and Floyd) interspersed with third-person narration of Ellie’s experiences and Laurel’s discoveries in the present. All of these devices serve to build palpable tension, but the structure also contributes to how deeply disturbing the story becomes. At times, the characters and the emotional core of the events are almost obscured by such quick maneuvering through the weighty plot.
Dark and unsettling, this novel’s end arrives abruptly even as readers are still moving at a breakneck speed.Pub Date: April 24, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-5011-5464-5
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Atria
Review Posted Online: Feb. 5, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2018
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