A bold and brilliant modern fable of sisterhood, class, and our relationship to the natural world.
In the San Juan Islands off Washington state, two sisters, bonded in the care of their dying mother, are divided by their reaction to a wildlife intruder.
Phillips’ follow-up to her acclaimed debut, Disappearing Earth (2019), again concerns a pair of sisters in a gorgeously evoked, off-the-beaten-track setting, this time with a close focus on the complicated psychology of the sibling relationship. Elena and Sam’s beautiful mother was “an orphan with two toddlers by the time she was twenty-five” and now, not long past her 50th birthday, is dying of causes related to inhaling solvents at the nail salon where she worked. Her daughters toil at the golf club restaurant and in the snack bar on the ferry; their plan is to make ends meet until their mother dies, then sell their house and the valuable land it occupies and leave the island. Phillips opens the novel with an excerpt from the fairy tale “Snow-White and Rose-Red” by the Brothers Grimm: “‘Poor bear,’ said the mother, ‘lie down by the fire, only take care that you do not burn your coat.’” This welcoming response to a wild creature is reflected in Elena’s reaction to a huge bear that shows up outside their front door one day, probably the same one Sam just spied from the deck of the ferry, swimming the channel. Unlike her older sister, Sam is terrified of the creature, and all the more so as Elena begins to feed and court him as a wilderness pet, imagining the bear as a magical lucky charm in their dreary lives. In Sam, her flawed and fascinating point-of-view character, Phillips flexes her writerly finesse and insight, creating a postadolescent working-class heroine full of resentment at all the monied people surrounding her, deeply dependent on her sister, and suspicious of everyone else. The division between the sisters is sharpened by secrets and past trauma that emerge slowly, then explode.
A bold and brilliant modern fable of sisterhood, class, and our relationship to the natural world.Pub Date: June 25, 2024
ISBN: 9780525520436
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Hogarth
Review Posted Online: May 24, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
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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