An absorbing and sobering reckoning with all-too-familiar disasters, both personal and planetary.
A Swedish family struggles to cope with climatological disaster.
The von der Esch family—father Didrik, mother Carola, teen daughter Vilja, little brother Zack, and baby Becka—evacuate their summer house in Dalarna as global warming–generated wildfires rage out of control. The author shifts between various family members and characters in their orbit to give first-person accounts of the chaotic aftermath, during which the family is separated (wounded Zack goes off with strangers with a working car; Didrik takes the vulnerable Becka on a crowded train back to Stockholm; Carola and Vilja make their way to an ad hoc refugee camp) and attempts to survive the crisis and hopefully reunite after the worst has passed. The action of the novel is tense, as the oppressive heat, lack of basic resources, and crumbling social contract threaten to overwhelm the embattled clan, but the strongest elements of the narrative are the depth and nuance of the characters’ inner monologues. Didrik, a somewhat pompous PR exec, experiences the catastrophe as a test of his masculinity. Vilja, characterized as selfish and bratty by her father, displays remarkable courage and maturity in navigating the fraught environment of the camp. Didrik’s mistress, Melissa, an ostensibly vacuous social media influencer safely ensconced in a luxury apartment in Stockholm, leads a rich inner life revolving around her pill addiction and borderline sociopathic manipulativeness. André, the teenage son of the tennis legend whose apartment Melissa is housesitting, drowns in insecurities and resentment as he embarks on an ill-advised nautical adventure. A sense of apocalyptic doom throws the relatively petty concerns of the characters into sharp relief even as their humanity is affirmed by the author’s careful attention to their quirks and unique perspectives. There are no villains here aside from climate change—an outward manifestation and inevitable consequence of the self-destructive impulses so relatably embodied by Liljestrand’s cast of haplessly civilized refugees.
An absorbing and sobering reckoning with all-too-familiar disasters, both personal and planetary.Pub Date: May 9, 2023
ISBN: 9781668005019
Page Count: 448
Publisher: Scout Press/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Feb. 23, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2023
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
Filled with action, violence, and more twists than a bag of pretzels.
Second of the Walter Nash thrillers—following Nash Falls (2025)—in which the remade hero seeks vengeance.
Due to urgent circumstances, Nash has bulked himself up to become the “muscled and tatted fighting machine” now known as Dillon Hope. His antagonist is Victoria Steers, a global drug dealer who wants him dead. Not realizing his new identity, she enlists Hope to free her mother, Masuyo, from a prison in Myanmar. As an incentive, she shoots one of her associates and threatens to frame Hope for the murder unless he complies. She also wants him to find Nash. He in turn wants to kill Victoria to avenge the death of his innocent daughter, Maggie. “If I go down,” he muses, “I’m taking others with me. Starting with Victoria Steers.” He learns that Victoria had killed all her siblings to eliminate business competition. But as heartless as Victoria is, her mother, Masuyo, is even worse. In league with the Chinese government in a perverse plan to kill as many Americans as possible through fentanyl overdose, she shows contempt for Victoria for her perceived weaknesses. Readers won’t find many happy family relationships here: mother-daughter, father-son, husband-wife—all fraught. Hope’s employer, who accompanies him to Myanmar, is a billionaire chief executive with a dodgy past (i.e., probably killed his father). And there’s a mega-billionaire with an astronomical IQ and ditch-deep morals who, putting it mildly, does not have America’s best interests at heart. As a teenager, he’d defeated two world chess champions; as an adult, he regards his dealings with the world in terms of master chess moves. Only one character seems truly decent and credible—Hiroko, Victoria’s former nanny and lifelong companion, who provides Hope with valuable insights into the Steers’ background, which is partly Chinese. Searing grudges, simple evil, and not-so-simple misunderstandings carry the cast through this complex, action-packed plot. This sequel ties out the loose ends dangling in Nash Falls, which would be helpful to read first. To get to the requisite ending, though, Baldacci takes pains to surprise the reader. It works but often feels forced.
Filled with action, violence, and more twists than a bag of pretzels.Pub Date: April 14, 2026
ISBN: 9781538758021
Page Count: 416
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Review Posted Online: Feb. 2, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2026
© Copyright 2026 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
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