The best thing that’s happened in the crowded world of Lewinskiana in a long time.
A woman revisits a troubling chapter in her past with the help of Saint Monica Lewinsky.
“Monica Lewinsky was born in 1973 to a noble family of Jews living in the American Empire. She grew up a beautiful and spirited girl and was given a rare position as a servant to the emperor in the heart of the imperial palace.” Langbein’s second novel opens with a brief biography of Monica Lewinsky written in the style of Lives of the Saints; similar lives of real female saints are interspersed throughout this complex comic confection. Saint Monica is invoked as a prelude to the story of Jean Dornan, a 45-year-old translator working in New York City’s court system. Jean has begun to be overwhelmed by memories of an affair she had with a professor in the summer of 1998, the same year as Monica’s fateful tryst. Before she knows it, the desperate woman is in the presence of a beatific Saint Monica, who guides her through a detailed re-examination of the six weeks she spent in France at an intensive study program on medieval art at age 19, told through flashbacks. She and Monica occasionally comment on the unfolding action. For example, when Jean, an accomplished cook, has the opportunity to make dinner for the other students and professors, she chooses lasagna. In her hands, this pedestrian dish is “a hot sarcophagus of deliciousness” that completely blows everyone away. “You’re a fucking genius,” Monica declares. Jean’s culinary skills get the attention of the handsome young scholar who’s leading the program, and things unfold in the way they often did in that era. In retrospect, Jean can see what an ambitious and gifted young woman she was, finally understanding that the way the scholar eventually punished her for what happened between them warped the course of her life. The final section of the book delivers a satisfyingly mythic resolution, continuing to interweave art historical and religious tropes into the story on multiple levels. Like Jean’s lasagna, the novel succeeds beyond expectations, its bold, clever comedic lineaments supporting a serious and poignant examination of female desire and male power.
The best thing that’s happened in the crowded world of Lewinskiana in a long time.Pub Date: April 14, 2026
ISBN: 9780385551502
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: Dec. 10, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2026
BOOK REVIEW
PERSPECTIVES
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
Great crime fiction.
An apparent suicide threatens to destroy an Irish farm town in the final volume of French’s Cal Hooper trilogy.
In the fictional western Ireland townland of Ardnakelty, “there’s a girl going after missing.” Soon young Rachel Holohan is found dead in the river. Shortly before, she had stopped at Lena Dunne’s home, and nothing had seemed amiss. The medical examiner determines she’d swallowed antifreeze, and he presumes she then fell from a bridge into the water. The medical examiner and the town agree she’d died by suicide. But there is far more to the plot: 16-year-old Trey Reddy thinks Tommy Moynihan murdered Rachel. Moynihan doles out favors and punishments to the local townsfolk, who know it’s best not to cross him. Now rumors spread that Moynihan wants land and has a secret plan to forcibly buy up parcels from the locals. A factory will be built, or a great big data center, or who knows what. If Tommy’s son, Eugene, can get elected to the local council, then compulsory purchase orders for land will follow, and the farms will disappear. Eugene, who’d been romantically involved with Rachel, is wonderfully described as “on the weedy edge of good-looking” and just fine as long as you “don’t have high expectations in the way of chins.” Lena is engaged to the American Cal Hooper, an ex-cop turned woodworker. They are “more or less raising” Trey, and these three core characters are drawn into the mystery of Rachel’s death and may have to face the looming clouds of civilizational change for Ardnakelty. Lena is chastised for “asking your wee questions all round the townland,” and Trey wants to quit school, against Cal’s advice. Finally, the story’s best line: “You can’t go killing people just because they deserve it.”
Great crime fiction.Pub Date: March 31, 2026
ISBN: 9780593493465
Page Count: 496
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: Dec. 26, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2026
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