Engaging and historically informative despite some grammatical challenges.
The stories of two women, separated by thousands of miles, connected by a young boy orphaned during World War II.
In 1938, Anna Torlensen, a young member of the small Jewish community in Arendal, Norway, is sitting on a bench by a wharf, gazing at the sea, watching for Harlen Lorsen to return with the day’s catch. When he and his brothers bring their fish to their mother’s small stand, Anna walks over to make her purchase. Thus begins a tragic love story. Harlen, increasingly worried by talk of a possible German invasion, joins the local resistance. In 1939, he and Anna marry and soon have a baby, which they place in an orphanage to protect him from the Germans. In a heartbreaking passage, Sadi describes Anna at the war’s end: “And each morning she would go down to the wharf and sit on the bench and look out at the water…while she waited for her husband to come back from the sea.” Part II of the novel opens in New Rochelle, New York, where Jenny Lorrson, daughter of Swedish immigrants, secures work in a New York City brokerage firm. There she meets and is charmed by Bill Maloff, a handsome naturalized Lebanese immigrant. Despite Jenny’s concern about his drinking, they marry when America enters the war. Bill is stationed in Egypt, and the couple takes up residence in Cairo, where the novel follows their lives. Sadi was born in Norway and lived for a time in Egypt. He unspools the tale of the stormy Maloff marriage, threatened by Bill’s alcoholism, including their adoption of the Lorsens’ then-10-year-old orphan. He paints a vibrant portrait of Egypt, sharing details of the luxurious lives of ex-patriots in Cairo. But it’s Anna and Harlen’s story that’s the most riveting, with its historically compelling descriptions of the bravery of the Norwegian resistance in the face of the German occupation of Arendal and a dramatic rescue of the town’s small Jewish population. Although the unique intertwining of the two stories is intriguing, the novel is hampered by misspellings (e.g., “He stirred the boat”) and punctuation oversights.
Engaging and historically informative despite some grammatical challenges.Pub Date: Feb. 6, 2026
ISBN: 9781665787697
Page Count: 270
Publisher: Archway
Review Posted Online: April 29, 2026
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Fans of Stockett’s bestselling debut will love this engaging follow-up.
Stockett heads to Mississippi for another historical novel about feisty women.
This time, perhaps recalling criticisms of cultural appropriation in The Help (2009), she sticks to feisty white women, with one exception. The setting is Oxford in 1933. For two miserable years, 11-year-old Meg has lived in “the Orphan,” a county asylum for parentless girls. Chairlady Garnett—a villain so one-note she’d twirl a mustache if she had one—makes it her mission to ostracize the older girls she deems unadoptable, stigmatizing them as offspring of the “feebleminded” mothers who abandoned them. She particularly has it in for smart, sassy Meg, who refuses to believe her mother’s mysterious disappearance was deliberate. Elsewhere in Oxford, Birdie Calhoun comes to visit her sister Frances, who married a wealthy banker, to ask for money on behalf of their mother and grandmother back in Footely. Frances isn’t thrilled by this reminder of her impoverished small-town origins. But she’s trying to climb up in Oxford society by volunteering at the Orphan, the asylum’s books need to be done before the state inspector shows up in a few weeks, and Birdie is a bookkeeper. Having neatly arranged to keep Birdie in town and draw these two storylines together, Stockett goes on to spin a compulsively readable yarn with enough plot for a half-dozen novels. Birdie and Meg become friends, Meg is adopted despite Garnett’s best efforts, Meg’s mother turns up at the Orphan demanding to know where her child is—and that’s less than a quarter of the way through a long, winding narrative that keeps piling on more dramatic developments until all loose ends are neatly, if hastily, wrapped up in the final pages. Stockett might be making a point about Southern women facing facts and standing up for themselves, but mostly this is just a satisfyingly twisty tale that should make a great miniseries.
Fans of Stockett’s bestselling debut will love this engaging follow-up.Pub Date: May 5, 2026
ISBN: 9781954118812
Page Count: 656
Publisher: Spiegel & Grau
Review Posted Online: Feb. 2, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2026
BOOK REVIEW
Simply charming.
A lovable gaggle of competitive quilters attempts to defy the odds.
The ladies of the Ogden Quilters Association are gearing up for another Simpton Family Quilting Extravaganza, and this year’s nationwide competition is extra special: It’s taking place just an hour away in Smithfield, Utah. For Betty Lou Dearden, OQA’s leader and most faithful member, who never misses a Wednesday quilting night and delights in reading the bylaws, this is a dream come true—a chance to put Utah quilting on the map. But beneath her bubbly surface, Betty Lou is struggling—longtime member Leera Smeeth has been passive aggressively shooting down Betty Lou’s ideas and attacking her sense of self for years (see: a particularly biting comment about her beloved peach bathroom); her children rarely visit; and her husband’s health is declining. And to top it off, OQA is down a member since Terry Blackfoot left following the oft-referenced but never explained “needle incident.” OQA’s remaining members—flighty but lovable Lucy Jones; dependable Diane Williams and her roommate, Alice Flagstaff; and innovative Candace Braithwaite—need more support. Enter Byron Grant, a gay sewing store manager who deals in rumor and gossip as much as in thread and batting, and his best friend, shy, artistic Rob, both younger than the youngest OQA member by about 30 years. Don’t worry, there’s nothing in the bylaws expressly prohibiting men. And so this quirky group of artisans attempts to dethrone the always-winning, clearly evil Logan Quilters Society (“We don’t hate anyone!...We just don’t prefer to associate with cheaters”), all the while wrestling with interpersonal conflict, trauma, and, let’s face it, a few tacky ideas. The plot is silly and largely predictable, but McCann’s prose is bursting at the seams with humor and genuinely tender, touching moments. You’ll root for these misfits from Page 1.
Simply charming.Pub Date: Sept. 8, 2026
ISBN: 9798890920461
Page Count: 260
Publisher: Torrey House Press
Review Posted Online: July 20, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2026
© Copyright 2026 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
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