A warmhearted, entertaining, and recognizable family saga.
In Basran’s novel, emotions run high as families prepare for an extravagant wedding.
An ornately bordered, two-page-spread invitation opens this novel about the impact of a lavish wedding on two extended Punjabi immigrant families in British Columbia, Canada. The bride, Devi Dosanjh, is a high-strung perfectionist who has helped to rebrand her parents’ produce business; her fiancé, Nanak “Baby” Atwal, the namesake of his family’s candy shop, is an easygoing people-pleaser who has just finished medical school. The wedding plans are extravagant—there is a week-long series of events leading up to the big day, a thousand expected guests, a DJ flown in from Mumbai, a signature cocktail, and Swarovski crystals and gold decorating the bride’s garments. The exhaustive preparations have consumed the participants, straining emotions and finances (both families have recently overextended their businesses); almost everyone is putting up a good front while harboring secret misgivings. As the wedding date approaches, Devi flirts by text with her brother’s bad-boy friend Jessie, and Baby has a hard time recalling exactly what it is he loves about Devi. Are these warning signs, or just normal prenuptial jitters? Basran writes with vivid eloquence: One man’s “entire demeanour was a mouse-like apology,” another is “a hand talker, conducting and directing the conversation.” The leads are both flawed and endearing, and their relationship feels realistic. The interplay of multiple perspectives creates depth as chapters move between multiple points of view, including those of the young couple, their friends and relatives, and the wedding stylist and photographer. The author’s skillful interweaving of themes and connected backstories makes for a compelling narrative. Basran deftly highlights the ways in which each generation affects the others and how all are concerned about keeping up appearances, from guests engineering Instagram-ready moments to a woman “acting disappointed when all she felt was relief.” The novel also offers astute social observations (people “[heart] posts as if it meant something”; “People had put love on a checklist; it was a task, something to execute”) and keen insights into traditional gender roles.
A warmhearted, entertaining, and recognizable family saga.Pub Date: May 27, 2025
ISBN: 9781771624169
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Douglas & McIntyre
Review Posted Online: Sept. 18, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2025
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
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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