A thought-provoking exploration of the complicated experience of an African woman in America.
A young Kenyan woman in New York City faces an identity crisis while coming to recognize how issues of race, culture, and religion are different for Black Americans than for Black Africans.
As a teen in Nairobi, Soila chafes at her rigid upbringing as the privileged daughter of a wealthy, widowed businesswoman depicted as painfully complex. Despite financial success, Mother has not recovered emotionally since her husband’s suicide years ago. Her extreme version of Catholicism requires that she regularly self-flagellate. An authoritarian unable to accept vulnerability in herself or others, she conveys love to Soila only through strict overprotectiveness. Cowed yet inwardly rebellious, Soila expresses herself in photography, aware that her mother will never let her pursue it seriously. Without her mother’s knowledge, she applies to American colleges and is accepted at Barnard. Unfortunately, when Soila asks her mother’s beloved priest to help her break the news, he molests her. The shame weighs her down until she finally opens up to her first New York boyfriend. Half Black Kenyan, half White American, he criticizes Soila’s judgmental attitude toward Black Americans and educates her on the “cycle of poverty” she has blithely ignored. Similarly, her best college friend teaches Soila to recognize her privilege as a rich Kenyan with a British accent by explaining America’s systemic racism in discussions that veer into the heavy-handed—was anyone really using the term white fragility in the 1990s? Most interesting when she tries to sort out her attitudes, Soila can be wearying as a narrator, often letting readers know how exceptionally smart, pretty, talented, and beloved she is. By 2001, Soila has graduated, eschewed photography to work in finance as her mother expects, and has a Black American lover her mother knows nothing about. But then comes the tragedy of Sept. 11 and a visit from her mother, causing Soila to reexamine what she really wants and where she fits.
A thought-provoking exploration of the complicated experience of an African woman in America.Pub Date: May 2, 2023
ISBN: 9780593133903
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Dial Press
Review Posted Online: March 13, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2023
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 dark and twisty look at just how far one woman is willing to go to find inspiration.
A struggling writer finds an unexpected muse when a mysterious man shows up at her cabin.
Petra Rose used to pump out a bestselling book every six months, but then the adaptation happened—that is, the disastrous film adaptation of her most famous book. The movie changed the book’s storyline so egregiously that fans couldn’t forgive her, and the ensuing harassment sent Petra into hiding and gave her a serious case of writer’s block. Petra’s one hope is her solo writing retreat at a remote cabin, where she can escape the distractions of real life and focus on her next book, a story about a woman having an affair with a cop. When officer Nathaniel Saint shows up at her cabin door, inspiration comes flooding back. Much like the character from Petra’s book, Saint is married, and he’s willing to be Petra’s muse, helping her get into her characters’ heads. Petra’s book is practically writing itself, but is the game she’s playing a little too dangerous? Does she know when to stop—and, more importantly, is Saint willing to stop? Hoover is no stranger to controversial movie adaptations and internet backlash, but she clarifies in a note to readers that she’s “just a writer writing about a writer” and that no further connections to her own life are contained in these pages—which is a good thing, because the book takes some horrifying twists and turns. Petra finds herself inexplicably attracted to Saint, even as she describes him as “such an asshole,” and her feelings for him veer between love and hate. The novel serves as a meta commentary on the dark romance genre—as Petra puts it, “Even though, as readers, we wouldn’t want to live out some of the fantasies we read about, it doesn’t mean we don’t enjoy reading those things.”
A dark and twisty look at just how far one woman is willing to go to find inspiration.Pub Date: Jan. 13, 2026
ISBN: 9781662539374
Page Count: -
Publisher: Montlake
Review Posted Online: Sept. 27, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2025
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