by Julia Kerninon translated by Alison Anderson ‧ RELEASE DATE: Aug. 25, 2020
Kerninon’s novel charms and unsettles to an equal degree, and a few small flaws fail to detract from the book’s power.
An ambiguous relationship is turned inside out in this intensely vivid novel.
Helen and Frank have lived together for decades—first in Amsterdam and later in Normandy. The nature of their relationship is somewhat murky. They’re devoted to each other, but they both take other lovers; at one point, Helen gets married and moves to Boston. Quiet Helen is a writer and a scholar while Frank develops an international reputation as a painter. This swift, intense novel is narrated by Helen, who, in the present day, reflects on a shared life that ends, finally, in spectacular violence. French novelist Kerninon’s prose has a rare clarity, and the details of Helen and Frank’s life accrue with assiduous force. We’re told early on that the story will end with an innocent death, but whose death approaches, and why, and how, isn’t revealed until the very end. Helen emerges as a richly complicated figure, full of contradictions. Unfortunately, the same isn’t true of Frank. He takes advantage of Helen’s nurturing—for years, she handles their domestic lives while, oblivious, he carries on painting—but beyond that, his interiority never comes into focus. This is partly due to the unnecessary gimmick on which the novel depends: In the present day, Helen has run into Frank on the street, and her narration of the novel is supposed to be a kind of monologue that she addresses to him. That gimmick tests the reader’s credulity. Still, the novel unwinds with such a propulsive momentum that these minor flaws are easily forgiven. This is Kerninon’s first book to appear in English; hopefully, there will be many more.
Kerninon’s novel charms and unsettles to an equal degree, and a few small flaws fail to detract from the book’s power.Pub Date: Aug. 25, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-60945-614-6
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Europa Editions
Review Posted Online: June 2, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2020
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by Kristin Hannah ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 6, 2024
A dramatic, vividly detailed reconstruction of a little-known aspect of the Vietnam War.
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A young woman’s experience as a nurse in Vietnam casts a deep shadow over her life.
When we learn that the farewell party in the opening scene is for Frances “Frankie” McGrath’s older brother—“a golden boy, a wild child who could make the hardest heart soften”—who is leaving to serve in Vietnam in 1966, we feel pretty certain that poor Finley McGrath is marked for death. Still, it’s a surprise when the fateful doorbell rings less than 20 pages later. His death inspires his sister to enlist as an Army nurse, and this turn of events is just the beginning of a roller coaster of a plot that’s impressive and engrossing if at times a bit formulaic. Hannah renders the experiences of the young women who served in Vietnam in all-encompassing detail. The first half of the book, set in gore-drenched hospital wards, mildewed dorm rooms, and boozy officers’ clubs, is an exciting read, tracking the transformation of virginal, uptight Frankie into a crack surgical nurse and woman of the world. Her tensely platonic romance with a married surgeon ends when his broken, unbreathing body is airlifted out by helicopter; she throws her pent-up passion into a wild affair with a soldier who happens to be her dead brother’s best friend. In the second part of the book, after the war, Frankie seems to experience every possible bad break. A drawback of the story is that none of the secondary characters in her life are fully three-dimensional: Her dismissive, chauvinistic father and tight-lipped, pill-popping mother, her fellow nurses, and her various love interests are more plot devices than people. You’ll wish you could have gone to Vegas and placed a bet on the ending—while it’s against all the odds, you’ll see it coming from a mile away.
A dramatic, vividly detailed reconstruction of a little-known aspect of the Vietnam War.Pub Date: Feb. 6, 2024
ISBN: 9781250178633
Page Count: 480
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: Nov. 4, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2023
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by Tana French ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 5, 2024
An absorbing crime yarn.
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A divorced American detective tries to blend into rural Ireland in this sequel to The Searcher (2020).
In fictional Ardnakelty, on Ireland’s west coast, lives retired American cop Cal Hooper, who busies himself repairing furniture with 15-year-old Theresa “Trey” Reddy and fervently wishes to be boring. Then into town pops Trey’s long-gone, good-for-nothing dad, Johnny, all smiles and charm. Much to her distaste, he says he wants to reclaim his fatherly role. In fact, he’s on the run from a criminal for a debt he can’t repay, and he has a cockamamie scheme to persuade local townsfolk that there might be gold in the nearby mountain with a vein that might run through some of their properties. (What, no leprechauns?) “It’s not sheep shite you’ll be smelling in a few months’ time, man,” he tells a farmer. “It’s champagne and caviar.” Some people have fun fantasizing about sudden riches, but they know better. Johnny’s pursuer, Cillian Rushborough, comes to town, and Johnny tries to convince him he could get rich by purchasing people’s land. Alas, someone bashes Rushborough’s brains in, and now there’s a murder mystery. The plot is a bit of a stretch, but the characters and their relationships work well. Trey detests Johnny for not being in her life, and now that he’s back, she neither wants nor needs him. She gets on much better with Cal. Still, she’s a testy teenager when she thinks someone is not treating her like an adult. Cal is aware of this, and he’s careful how he talks to her. Johnny, not so much: “I swear to fuck, women are only put on this earth to wreck our fuckin’ heads,” he whines about Trey’s mother, briefly forgetting he’s talking to Trey. The book abounds in local color and lively dialogue.
An absorbing crime yarn.Pub Date: March 5, 2024
ISBN: 9780593493434
Page Count: 480
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: Dec. 6, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2024
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