A finely turned novel that evokes its subject’s gift for slyly biting domestic tales.
A British novelist takes a vexing trip to Mexico, seeking money and inspiration.
Kane’s third novel is based on the true story of a trip taken in 1952 by Penelope Fitzgerald, author of modern classics like The Bookshop (1978) and The Blue Flower (1997), to Saltillo, a desert town in northern Mexico. Two elderly sisters-in-law, the Delaneys, onetime owners of a profitable silver mine, contact Fitzgerald to invite her to visit, noting a distant relation and dangling the possibility of an inheritance. Fitzgerald, pregnant and in dire financial and marital straits—a literary journal she founded with her husband, Desmond, is struggling, and he’s sinking into alcoholism—heads out with her 6-year-old son, Valpy. The women’s manor is impressive, but the Delaneys have their own drinking issues, and there are other visitors competing for the women’s finances—one hoping to build a bird museum, a Catholic priest lamenting various church needs, and so on. Fitzgerald often depicted women in desperate straits through eerily poised prose, and Kane nicely evokes that style here, as Penelope struggles to detect the Delaneys’ intentions, parent Valpy through the confusion, and manage a growing attraction to one of the manor’s visitors. Playing a cameo role is the painter Edward Hopper, who visited Saltillo multiple times with his wife, Jo; though there’s no evidence he and Fitzgerald ever met, Kane nicely deploys Hopper as an inspiration for Penelope’s writing career. The trip was futile in the short run—in a London Review of Books essay, Fitzgerald called Saltillo “Fonseca,” Latin for “dry well”—but, in Kane’s hands, profoundly influential. The novel also includes actual letters from Fitzgerald’s children, bolstering the sense that their mother’s trip to Mexico was thick with mysteries. Kane’s novel elegantly fills in the gaps.
A finely turned novel that evokes its subject’s gift for slyly biting domestic tales.Pub Date: Aug. 12, 2025
ISBN: 9780593298855
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Penguin Press
Review Posted Online: May 16, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2025
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
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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