A richly drawn story of religious and scholastic devotion.
In Holt-Browning’s debut novel, a medieval teen and a contemporary scholar lead parallel lives.
Wenfair Abbey, England, 1370: After the death of her mother, 12-year-old Elinor is sent to serve Lady Adela, an anchoress who, for the past four years, has been sealed in a bricked-up cell within the walls of the abbey (an anchoress is willingly and permanently isolated in such a chamber to pursue a solitary life of prayer and mortification). “It is morning and the sun must be risen high, but it is like night in here,” writes Elinor of her new home, which she sees more as a prison than a place of God. At first, it seems to Elinor that Lady Adela does nothing but pray, but she soon learns that the women of the village visit her at night to ask for help with a very specific problem. Stillburne, New York, 2017: Liz Pace works as an adjunct professor of medieval studies at the local college. She’s hoping to expand her dissertation on purgatory into a book, which could lead to a tenure-track position, but a miscarriage throws her life off balance. Hoping to expand her study to include anchoresses, she takes a researching trip to England, where she finds an old book of hours—one that seems to connect to the mysterious Adela and Elinor of Wenfair Abbey. The narration alternates fluidly between Elinor and Liz, whose shared interest in the psychological state of the anchoress keeps the short chapters all moving in the same direction. Holt-Browning is a talented storyteller, summoning the dreary world of 14th-century England in vivid sensorial detail. Here, Elinor is embarrassed to have to pass chamber pots through the window to an assisting monk: “I was ready to empty our pots myself, but I was not prepared to hand them to a man, practically a stranger. And certainly not to Brother Joseph. I blush to think of his kind eyes again—which I did not expect to meet over a chamber pot.” The plot offers no big twists and few moments of high drama, but the novel is an enjoyable read nonetheless, illuminating a peculiar corner of historical religiosity for a wider audience.
A richly drawn story of religious and scholastic devotion.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: 9781958972472
Page Count: -
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: Aug. 6, 2024
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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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