Come for the human drama, stay for the goatish antics, or vice versa, in this bighearted tale of paradise forged.
A bildungsroman of middle age about a 47-year-old goat farmer; her aging, beloved husband; and her high school best friend turned lover, set amid the lush fields of western Massachusetts.
Lucy Richard (that’s “Ree-SHARD,” from her French Canadian forebears) calls Edin, Massachusetts, home again after more than two decades in happy exile while her husband, Michael Mancini, taught at Columbia and she worked in the university’s communications office. Their return to Edin goes as badly as Adam and Eve’s: Michael begins to exhibit signs of dementia and Lucy learns that running her father’s farm requires reserves no one person has. As a year passes, joys and troubles ebb and flow like the nearby Connecticut River: The goats freshen and kid, Michael requires more care, Lucy’s friend Alexandra “Sandy” Stevens moves to the area to sell solar-power packages, and they tumble into the passionate love they’d shied away from as teenagers. Since Acker edits a literary magazine, The Common, celebrating the importance of place, it’s fitting that her novel derives so much heft from descriptions of everything from asparagus beds to frozen winter soil to the annual joy of new baby goats. Astute readers may guess how Lucy moves forward, but that matters very little. This is a novel about the journey; Lucy and her chosen family face relationships ending, corporate takeovers, homophobia, debilitating illness, elder abuse, and financial precarity while pitching in to repair fences, rescue sick animals, give each other business ideas, and occasionally relax for a few hours of laughter and good, locally sourced food. Amid all this activity is a tale about where the truest love and loyalty lies for a woman in her late 40s. At one point, frustrated by many things, Lucy tries to start a fire. “I have better wood downstairs,” she thinks, “but I’m terribly, defiantly determined to succeed with what I have, wood I never should have brought upstairs in the first place.” It’s the perfect metaphor to illustrate both Lucy herself and the pioneer spirit of the Pioneer Valley.
Come for the human drama, stay for the goatish antics, or vice versa, in this bighearted tale of paradise forged.Pub Date: April 14, 2026
ISBN: 9781953002716
Page Count: 275
Publisher: Delphinium
Review Posted Online: Jan. 19, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2026
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 delightfully nostalgic novel about how the things we loved in the past have the power to shape our future.
A boy band cruise is the site of one woman’s post-divorce healing.
Annie never meant to end up alone on a Boy Talk cruise, but that’s exactly what happens when her sister breaks a leg and has to bow out of their vacation. Now Annie is sharing a cabin with a stranger, stuck on the cruise ship American Fantasy with the 1990s band—and thousands of their biggest fans, known as Talkers. Annie doesn’t consider herself a Talker, even if she was a fan back in the day. But reeling from a recent divorce and dealing with complex feelings about turning 50, Annie throws herself into the distraction of the trip. What she doesn’t expect is to truly connect with the music, the band, the other fans, and herself. As Annie observes, “This was why people turned to religion or watched the Super Bowl at a sports bar instead of alone in their living room. It felt good to be a part of something where your passion was celebrated instead of mocked.” All the Talkers dream of having a special bond with “the guys,” but when Annie actually does meet Keith, a Boy Talk member who’s clearly going through a hard time, she wonders if their connection is real or if she’s just as delusional as the other (mostly) women on the ship. Straub depicts a wonderfully immersive world aboard the American Fantasy, one where each woman assigns herself a favorite guy and everyone is bedecked in Boy Talk merch. For five days, the Talkers live in a fantasy world where the only thing that matters is their connection with a band that meant everything to them so many years ago. As Annie puts it, “Inside her head, which is where she heard the music, it had touched some lever so deep that it couldn’t be reversed…the music was a direct vein to her own childhood, the least complicated part of her life.”
A delightfully nostalgic novel about how the things we loved in the past have the power to shape our future.Pub Date: April 7, 2026
ISBN: 9798217046850
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Riverhead
Review Posted Online: Jan. 19, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2026
PERSPECTIVES
PERSPECTIVES
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