Potentially of some interest to architecture buffs, not so much to fiction readers.
Very lightly fictionalized life of a Spanish-born architect who had his greatest success in the U.S.
We meet Rafael Guastavino (1842-1908) on May 11, 1881, when, barely a month after their arrival in New York, his 9-year-old son, Rafael Jr., watches as his mother tells her philandering mate she’s going back to Barcelona. The adult Rafael Jr. is designing the dome of St. John the Divine as he begins his recollections of his father’s complicated personal and professional lives, which include two marriages (neither of them to Rafael Jr.’s mother) and some simultaneous affairs. “I could not be without a woman in my life,” Guastavino tells his son to excuse his various infidelities, which are so poorly managed that he’s inevitably found out. He’s equally feckless in his financial affairs, going bankrupt on several occasions despite a growing reputation based on his innovative vault designs, which are fireproof and lighter than anything American architects have seen. Rafael Jr. was intimately involved in his father’s work even before he left school at 15 to apprentice in the business, and his descriptions of Guastavino’s contributions to the Boston Public Library, the Grand Central Oyster Bar, Manhattan’s City Hall subway station, Boston’s Christian Science mother church, and other iconic buildings are the most engaging parts of the book. The stop-and-start way readers learn about Guastavino’s past, which mirrors the way Rafael Jr. pried the details from his secretive father, is one of the few reasons to consider this a novel, along with the son’s less-than-riveting musings on how their relationship evolved over time. Moro’s previous book along these lines, a “dramatized biography” of Sonia Gandhi called The Red Sari, prompted an official protest from the Indian National Congress party after it was published in Spain in 2008; this slow-moving successor is unlikely to stir that much attention.
Potentially of some interest to architecture buffs, not so much to fiction readers.Pub Date: Jan. 6, 2026
ISBN: 9781640097469
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Counterpoint
Review Posted Online: Sept. 27, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 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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