A haunting, slow-burning story about the hunger for connection and the pressures of family.
A graduate student struggles to overcome generations of inherited trauma and an existential crisis in Morris’ novel.
Jake Luria is pursuing a doctorate degree at Harvard and struggling under a significant amount of pressure. His research is not going well, adding to the animosity already expressed by his boss and colleagues. At home, Jake takes responsibility for keeping an eye on his twin sister, Sara, a brilliant physicist and lecturer at MIT who struggles with depression. After mental health episodes threaten Sara’s life, their “great uncle,” Sol, insists that Jake must serve as her eternal protector. However, his recent struggles with his research and the possibility that his thesis might face rejection mean that Jake must put in longer hours than usual. One night, Sara visits Jake in the lab and, after muttering the words “The flesh burns, but the letters fly free,” ingests a flask of phenol, a potentially fatal chemical. Jake is quick to rush her to the emergency room, where she narrowly survives the night. As Sara recovers in the hospital, Jake looks for answers as to why his sister would suddenly want to harm herself. With these answers come revelations of generational trauma and family secrets, and Jake must grapple with his own dwindling sense of self. From the first page of this stunning, melancholic story, readers will understand the amount of pressure Jake is under and will likely feel it themselves. Morris’ prose is honest and hauntingly poetic, evincing a deep, breathtaking emotionality. All of the characters are wonderfully complex, especially Jake, who, unlike some of his more clichéd counterparts in contemporary literature and film, is empathetic and thoughtful. While readers may initially blanch at the weight of the emotional subject matter, Morris treats the sensitive topics with care, delivering an enthralling read from cover to cover.
A haunting, slow-burning story about the hunger for connection and the pressures of family.Pub Date: Jan. 5, 2026
ISBN: 9781934639313
Page Count: 286
Publisher: Chami and Shim Publications
Review Posted Online: Dec. 27, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2026
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
SEEN & HEARD
A pleasant if not entirely convincing tribute to the power of art.
A French art historian’s English-language fiction debut combines the story of a loving relationship between a grandfather and granddaughter with an enlightening discussion of art.
One day, when 10-year-old Mona removes the necklace given to her by her now-dead grandmother, she experiences a frightening, hour-long bout of blindness. Her parents take her to the doctor, who gives her a variety of tests and also advises that she see a psychiatrist. Her grandfather Henry tells her parents that he will take care of that assignment, but instead, he takes Mona on weekly visits to either the Louvre, the Musée d’Orsay, or the Centre Pompidou, where each week they study a single work of art, gazing at it deeply and then discussing its impact and history and the biography of its maker. For the reader’s benefit, Schlesser also describes each of the works in scrupulous detail. As the year goes on, Mona faces the usual challenges of elementary school life and the experiences of being an only child, and slowly begins to understand the causes of her temporary blindness. Primarily an amble through a few dozen of Schlesser’s favorite works of art—some well known and others less so, from Botticelli and da Vinci through Basquiat and Bourgeois—the novel would probably benefit from being read at a leisurely pace. While the dialogue between Henry and the preternaturally patient and precocious Mona sometimes strains credulity, readers who don’t have easy access to the museums of Paris may enjoy this vicarious trip in the company of a guide who focuses equally on that which can be seen and the context that can’t be. Come for the novel, stay for the introductory art history course.
A pleasant if not entirely convincing tribute to the power of art.Pub Date: Aug. 26, 2025
ISBN: 9798889661115
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Europa Editions
Review Posted Online: June 7, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2025
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
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