At times heart-wrenching, but often delightful: a testament to the human spirit and the capacity to love.
Fifteen stories artfully weave beauty and joy with the tragedies of war and political persecution.
Saeed wrote many of these stories during the 12 years he spent as a prisoner of conscience in Syria, others after the Syrian uprising in 2011. This history makes its way into many of the stories, which sometimes fly with the beauty of impressionistic poetry and sometimes groan under the weight of horrors and atrocities inflicted on oppressed people. Even in the several stories that depict young, desperate love, there’s a palpable sense that Saeed is writing about a freedom that was taken from him. He sketches a world both beautiful and fragile, indeed beautiful because it’s fragile: The lack of freedom makes the overlooked aspects of freedom all the sweeter. In the book’s final story, “My Grandmother Fatima’s Cough,” a gut-wrenching exchange occurs between the narrator and his 7-year-old brother. The little boy asks: “How many times does a person have to be displaced in their life?” The narrator wonders why he’s asking the question, and he explains: “So I know how many more times I have left.” Loss of innocence is a theme in many stories. So is the daily toll of war, oppression, and genocide painted in broad strokes across news broadcasts; here, its sufferers—people who want to live without the constant fear of death—have names and faces. Saeed’s ability to tell their stories with breathtaking beauty and clarity is a marvel. Among the exchanges that will linger in readers’ memories: A passerby in “An Olive Tree” asks Mr. As’ad: “Who does this tree belong to?” He replies, “The tree is free.” “Then it belongs to everyone,” the stranger says. “No,” answers As’ad, “it owns everyone.”
At times heart-wrenching, but often delightful: a testament to the human spirit and the capacity to love.Pub Date: Oct. 7, 2025
ISBN: 9781770418042
Page Count: 180
Publisher: ECW Press
Review Posted Online: Aug. 16, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2025
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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