A towering achievement from one of contemporary literature’s most original minds.
A grieving man is confronted with a mysterious counterpart.
Aubrey Lewis has seen better days. The former actor used to star in a popular British television series, People Live, People Die, People Live As If They Were Already Dead, but now lives in a London sublet, still grieving the death of his wife from cancer and subsisting on his dwindling savings. He gets the offer of a lifeline from Fran Howe, a director he’s worked with before, who wants him to audition for a role in a literary adaptation; he declines the chance. Enter Lindsey Korine, a former schoolmate of Lewis’ who happens to bear a striking resemblance to him and who shows up at his door one day with no explanation. Lewis, who grows tired of Korine’s company, leaves his flat, leaving Korine alone; Korine decides to audition for the role himself: “I might have registered Lewis’s vulnerability and decided to exploit it,” Korine admits. “Or else, I registered his vulnerability and decided that this person, this walking SOS, needed my help." Meanwhile, Lewis moves in with Korine’s estranged wife and child—the two seem to know he’s not Korine, but choose to keep the charade going. Lewis and Korine begin to encounter each other around London but keep living each other’s lives. This is a novel that can be read in one of two ways: Either Lewis and Korine are indeed different people, doppelgängers, or they’re one person undergoing an existential crisis. Waidner never tips their hand, which is a brilliant decision that throws the reader off balance as they are drawn into Lewis and/or Korine’s unsettling world. The novel is not as gleefully absurd as Waidner’s previous two, but their restraint turns out to be welcome. This is a stunning book with much to say about how grief can alter our life (or lives).
A towering achievement from one of contemporary literature’s most original minds.Pub Date: June 16, 2026
ISBN: 9780374620332
Page Count: 192
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: March 23, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: yesterday
BOOK REVIEW
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 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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