An empathetic tale that captures its time and place.
Wolter’s historical novel chronicles the life of a disabled young man in Southeast Asia.
Idris’ life changes forever in 1943 when he contracts polio as a 4-year-old; unable to walk with his twisted legs, he crawls along the dusty ground. In his small fishing village of Kuala Terengganu in Malaya, peers mock him as “Salamander Man,” and many adults also behave unkindly, believing Idris has been cursed by the evil eye. The primary school headmaster won’t let Idris attend, stating “School isn’t for his kind.” Though he’s crushed, Idris educates himself, starting with a series of English school books decommissioned during the 1940s Japanese occupation of Malaya. Idris inserts himself into the stories of Andy, Betty, and their dog Cookie as a friend who is accepted despite his nonworking legs. Learning that Idris has again been rejected by the primary school, Uncle Rashid, a secondary school teacher, offers to tutor the boy in Islamic studies, literature, and geography. Idris also acquires two more mentors: Father Chao teaches him Chinese, and an English bank manager, Mr. Chadwick, becomes a personal friend. Idris becomes fluent in several languages, reads great works of literature like The Iliad and Ulysses, and receives a life-changing gift from Mr. Chadwick, but what he yearns for most seems unreachable—friends his own age (and, as he gets older, a girlfriend). Idris’ story could easily become sentimentalized, but Wolter portrays his main character as a flawed person, not a saintly martyr. (Idris gets angry with Father Chao and God for not fixing his legs and enjoys the revenge he takes on some mean older boys; he also sits in a tree, creepily spying on undressed women.) The book provides an intriguing snapshot of Idris’ village in the country then called Malaya as villagers wearing sarongs wash outdoors, children climb trees for fun, and Idris ingests turtle eggs and goat’s milk. After the introduction of Maimum, the most beautiful woman Idris has ever seen, the story edges into melodrama, but Idris, who loves books for “transporting [him] to other times and other places,” leaves a lasting impression.
An empathetic tale that captures its time and place.Pub Date: April 15, 2025
ISBN: 9798315565819
Page Count: 422
Publisher: Self
Review Posted Online: June 6, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2025
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A boarding-school fantasia, with Hilderbrand’s signature upgrades to the cuisine and decor. Sign us up for next term.
A year in the life of the No. 2 boarding school in America—up from No. 19 last year!
Rumors of Hilderbrand’s retirement were greatly exaggerated, it turns out, since not only has she not gone out to pasture, she’s started over in high school, with her daughter Shelby Cunningham as co-author. As their delicious new book opens, it’s Move-In Day at Tiffin Academy, and Head of School Audre Robinson is warmly welcoming the returning and new students to the New England campus, the latter group including a rare midstream addition to the junior class. Brainiac Charley Hicks is transferring from public school in Maryland to a spot that opened up when one of the school’s most beloved students died by suicide the preceding year. She will be joining a large, diverse cast of adult and teenage characters—queen bees, jealous second-stringers, boozehounds young and old, secret lesbians, people chasing the wrong people chasing other wrong people—all of them royally screwed when an app called Zip Zap appears and starts blasting everyone’s secrets all over campus. How the heck…? Meanwhile, it seems so unlikely that Tiffin has jumped up to the No. 2 spot in the boarding-school rankings that a high-profile magazine launches an investigation, and even the head is worried that there may have been payola involved. The school has a reputation for being more social than academic, and this quality gets an exciting new exclamation point when the resident millionaire bad boy opens a high-style secret speakeasy for select juniors in a forgotten basement. It’s called Priorities. Exactly. One problem: Cinnamon Peters’ mysterious suicide hangs over the book in an odd way, especially since the note she left for her closest male friend is not to be opened for another year—and isn’t. This is surely a setup for a sequel, but it’s a bit frustrating here, and bobs sort of shallowly along amid the general high spirits.
A boarding-school fantasia, with Hilderbrand’s signature upgrades to the cuisine and decor. Sign us up for next term.Pub Date: Sept. 16, 2025
ISBN: 9780316567855
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: July 4, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2025
SEEN & HEARD
Vintage Follett. His fans will be pleased.
A dramatic, complex imagining of the origins of Stonehenge.
In about 2500 B.C.E. on the Great Plain, Seft and his family collect flints in a mine. He dislikes the work, and the motherless lad hates the abuse he gets from his father and brothers. He leaves them and arrives at a wooden monument where sacred events such as the Midsummer Rite take place. There are also circles of stones that help predict equinoxes, solstices, even eclipses. This is a world where the customary greeting is “May the Sun God smile on you,” and everyone is a year older on Midsummer Day. Except for a priestess or two, no one can count beyond fingers and toes—to indicate 30, they show both hands, point to both feet, then show both hands again. Casual sex is common, and sex between women is less common but not taboo. Joia, a young woman who becomes a priestess, wonders about her sexuality. After a fire destroys the Monument, she leads a bold effort to rebuild it in stone. To please the gods, they must haul 10 giant stones from distant Stony Valley. Of course neither machinery nor roads exist, so the difficulties are extraordinary. Although the project has its detractors, hundreds of able-bodied people are willing to help. Craftspeople known as cleverhands construct a sled and a road, and they make the rope to wrap around the stones. Many, many others pull. And pull. Meanwhile, the three principal groups—farmers, woodlanders, and herders—all have their separate interests. There is talk of war, which Joia has never seen in her lifetime. Soon it seems inevitable that the powerful farmers will not only start one but win it, unless heroes like Seft and Joia can come up with a creative plan. But there is also the matter of love for Joia in this well-plotted and well-told yarn. The story has a lot of characters from multiple tribes, and they can be hard to keep track of. A page in the front of the book listing who’s who would be helpful.
Vintage Follett. His fans will be pleased.Pub Date: Sept. 23, 2025
ISBN: 9781538772775
Page Count: 704
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Review Posted Online: July 4, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2025
© Copyright 2025 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
