This feel-good story of an unlikely friendship soothes and surprises with its tenderness.
In this decades-spanning drama, a lonely octogenarian recalls her extraordinary life and the important role she played in the lives of her friends and family.
In his inimitably charming way, author, comedian, and talk show host Norton tells the tale of Frances “Frankie” Howe, whose story, like the author’s, is rooted in Ireland. As the novel opens, 84-year-old Frankie is sequestered in her London home after having broken an ankle. Damian, a young Irishman, is hired to care for her. The cantankerous Frankie is drawn to Damian, who encourages her to share her life story. Born in Ireland and orphaned at an early age, Frankie was sent to live with an aunt and uncle with conservative ideas about women. In 1950s Ireland, most women were discouraged from following their dreams and, when Frankie turned 18, she was pressured into marrying a clergyman more than twice her age. Frankie’s suffocating life was common for many women of that era, and Norton paints a formidable picture of how culturally imposed limitations made many women feel betrayed by the world. But Frankie’s life, in Norton’s deft hands, turns colorful, dramatic, and full of light. Serendipity takes her to England, where’s she’s again betrayed by people meant to protect her, and then on to New York City, where fate hands her a romantic respite, a career, and friendships she never anticipated. Norton beautifully evokes settings including the lesbian culture of 1960s London, the art world in 1970s and ‘80s New York, and the heartbreaking emergence of the AIDS epidemic. As in his four earlier novels, Norton ably captures the lives of ordinary people struggling to find their way in an often harsh world.
This feel-good story of an unlikely friendship soothes and surprises with its tenderness.Pub Date: Jan. 14, 2025
ISBN: 9780063436473
Page Count: 304
Publisher: HarperVia
Review Posted Online: Oct. 11, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2024
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
Great crime fiction.
An apparent suicide threatens to destroy an Irish farm town in the final volume of French’s Cal Hooper trilogy.
In the fictional western Ireland townland of Ardnakelty, “there’s a girl going after missing.” Soon young Rachel Holohan is found dead in the river. Shortly before, she had stopped at Lena Dunne’s home, and nothing had seemed amiss. The medical examiner determines she’d swallowed antifreeze, and he presumes she then fell from a bridge into the water. The medical examiner and the town agree she’d died by suicide. But there is far more to the plot: 16-year-old Trey Reddy thinks Tommy Moynihan murdered Rachel. Moynihan doles out favors and punishments to the local townsfolk, who know it’s best not to cross him. Now rumors spread that Moynihan wants land and has a secret plan to forcibly buy up parcels from the locals. A factory will be built, or a great big data center, or who knows what. If Tommy’s son, Eugene, can get elected to the local council, then compulsory purchase orders for land will follow, and the farms will disappear. Eugene, who’d been romantically involved with Rachel, is wonderfully described as “on the weedy edge of good-looking” and just fine as long as you “don’t have high expectations in the way of chins.” Lena is engaged to the American Cal Hooper, an ex-cop turned woodworker. They are “more or less raising” Trey, and these three core characters are drawn into the mystery of Rachel’s death and may have to face the looming clouds of civilizational change for Ardnakelty. Lena is chastised for “asking your wee questions all round the townland,” and Trey wants to quit school, against Cal’s advice. Finally, the story’s best line: “You can’t go killing people just because they deserve it.”
Great crime fiction.Pub Date: March 31, 2026
ISBN: 9780593493465
Page Count: 496
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: Dec. 26, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2026
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