Perfect for readers who appreciate thoughtful and substantive fiction.
One family’s odyssey spotlights England’s transformation between VE Day and the coronavirus pandemic.
Just south of grimy industrial Birmingham, Bournville was established in the late 19th century by the Cadbury family as a model village with healthy housing and amenities for the workers in their chocolate factory. It’s there in 1945 that 11-year-old Mary joins a celebration of the European war’s end that introduces her to her future husband—and to the bigoted nationalism that will contend into the next century with a more expansive view of Britain’s future. In 1953, she becomes engaged to stodgy, conservative Geoffrey Lamb around the time of Queen Elizabeth’s coronation; it’s the second in a series of iconic events on which Coe hangs his exploration of intermingled societal and personal change. By the time of the England-West Germany World Cup final in 1966, the Lambs have three sons with very different personalities and outlooks. Eldest Jack has Mary’s outgoing nature but shares Geoffrey’s values; by the end of the novel, he’s a Brexit supporter and admirer of Boris Johnson. (Johnson flits around the fringes of the story, seen first as a joke and then revealed to be a shrewd manipulator of social anxieties.) Quiet, deliberate Martin—married to a Black woman, to Geoffrey’s open dismay—works for Cadbury; his efforts to get English chocolate certified for sale in the European Union provide a hilarious scene of E.U. dysfunction. Youngest son Peter, a musician, finally acknowledges that he's gay during the period of turbulent emotionalism surrounding the death of Princess Diana, an episode of national hysteria that most of the Lamb family (except Jack, of course) regard with bemusement. As Coe follows his richly characterized cast across 75 years, he hews to the venerable traditions of the English realistic novel, capturing Britain’s increasingly diverse, cosmopolitan society in the varying reactions of his characters. The pandemic-restricted commemorations of VE Day’s 75th anniversary bring this pensive novel to an appropriately sober close.
Perfect for readers who appreciate thoughtful and substantive fiction.Pub Date: Oct. 17, 2023
ISBN: 9781609459420
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Europa Editions
Review Posted Online: July 26, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 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
SEEN & HEARD
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
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