A queer Chinese Indonesian tear-jerker: a winning combination.
A grandmother reveals the secret of her long-ago forbidden love.
In a near-future Jakarta, Indonesia, secretly gay teenager Izzy Chen doesn’t fit into her society-conscious family. Her grandmother Magnolia, the family’s matriarch, knows the story of her own hidden life will help Izzy blossom, so she unfurls her saga. In mid-1990s Jakarta, Magnolia is the obedient daughter, a stark contrast to her rebellious older sister, Iris. The two are sent to Los Angeles for college, where they grapple with the residue of their rigid upbringing: What does it mean to be a good Chindo—ethnically Chinese from Indonesia—girl? On her first day of class, Magnolia meets a girl named Ellery O’Shea, and everything she thought she wanted—a respectable boy and her parents’ approval—disappears in the face of real love. Ellery is openly queer, but Magnolia always thought of herself as straight. The two are in love but keep their feelings hidden, and then Ellery goes to London. Returning to Jakarta, Magnolia falls in line: marries a man named Parker, sets up house, and secretly writes Ellery heart-wrenching letters she never sends. The novel offers a biting examination of a traditional patriarchy in the Chindo community, its status-driven social scene and a culture less tolerant of queer lives. As such, Magnolia finds it easier to conform than to question. Meanwhile, Iris becomes a tech trailblazer in Jakarta, but when she becomes pregnant by an abuser, she returns to LA followed by Magnolia and Parker. And who should be there waiting to stir everything up but Ellery? Sex, tragedy, and vindication follow. This is at times a frothy rom-com, at others an absorbing portrait of South Asian women hemmed in by impossible expectations.
A queer Chinese Indonesian tear-jerker: a winning combination.Pub Date: Nov. 11, 2025
ISBN: 9780593816875
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Berkley
Review Posted Online: Sept. 13, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
PERSPECTIVES
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
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
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