Though Garner’s voice is always worth hearing, this collection might not be the best place for new readers to begin.
Short fiction from an eminent Australian writer.
In a thoughtful foreword, Jonathan Escoffery finds throughlines in this group of 14 stories, gathered from two books originally published in Australia in 1985 and 1998. He points out that most feature women living in the “transformative period of feminism’s second wave.” Many feature travelers found in airports, on ferries, in lodgings in France, Germany, or England. Though in general Garner’s approach is, as Escoffery says, associative, elliptical, and avoidant of epiphanies, some of the most accessible moments deliver feminist revelations. For example, in the last story, “What We Say,” the narrator is staying with a male friend in Sydney who serves lunch to her and her good friend after they’ve seen Rigoletto. It quickly becomes apparent that they view the opera very differently, from distinctly gendered perspectives. While it seems obvious to the host that it speaks to a male fear of losing their daughters, and thus belongs to a male tradition of art, the women see it as a story about being unable to protect their children. What are the historic themes of women’s literature, the host wonders. “We don’t have a tradition in the way you blokes do,” the narrator says. If anything, it’s “a shadow tradition….It’s there, but nobody knows what it is.” Her friend adds, “We’ve been trained in your tradition….We’re honorary men.” In this conversation and others, Garner moves women out of the shadows, asserts their agency. Two friends take a walk through a cemetery. “My friend pointed out a headstone which said, She lived only for others. ‘Poor thing,’ said my friend. ‘On my grave I want you to write, She lived only for herself.’” Without the strong central narrative voice of Garner’s novels, the raw, autofictional quality for which she’s known is not as prominent, though there is a charming early childhood story with a main character named Little Helen. Her prose, as always, is honest, energetic, spare, and precise.
Though Garner’s voice is always worth hearing, this collection might not be the best place for new readers to begin.Pub Date: March 3, 2026
ISBN: 9780553387476
Page Count: 208
Publisher: Pantheon
Review Posted Online: Dec. 20, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2026
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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