A compelling story of redemption and renewal.
In Sharma’s novel, an Indian power broker’s perspective is changed by an idealistic village leader.
“Everything is possible…if you pay the right amount of money to the right people at the right time,” affirms Nambardaar, a billionaire businessperson who’s built an empire on the backs of the poor. He enables embezzlement, bribes government officials, and blithely operates a bus line that’s responsible for multiple hit-and-run fatalities. In a system supported by caste inequality, justice proves elusive for the citizenry. However, Nambardaar’s life takes a turn after he endorses Gangu, a member of the so-called “untouchable” caste, to lead the village of Setpur as a political ploy. Gangu’s quiet integrity proves transformative, unsettling the balance of local power, and when Gangu appoints Muskan, a socially progressive member of the Brahmin caste, to serve in the Setpur school, the unscrupulousness of an entire system is put on display. Muskan finds a school in shambles, with starving children and absent teachers, and he reports the intolerable situation to the district magistrate. Yet Muskan’s altruism comes at a dangerous price that may cost Setpur children their lives. When Nambardaar’s sons are gravely injured by his corruption, the wealthy man finally begins to see the error of his ways. Sharma’s novel offers readers a blend of beauty and grit while highlighting political injustices that include unpayable loans and rampant pollution. The work also effectively confronts the consequences of a caste system in which oppressed people are forced into silence. Nambardaar’s initial disregard for the lives of the poor is shocking, and it invites readers to consider the ways in which others excuse oppression in the name of personal gain. The work engagingly culminates in a celebration of the human spirit as an oppressor shares the plight of those he’s abused and is spiritually reborn. Not all aspects of some characters’ stories are fully resolved, but readers will embrace the ending, with its assurance that love can be awakened in the hardest of hearts.
A compelling story of redemption and renewal.Pub Date: July 15, 2020
ISBN: 9789380710907
Page Count: 529
Publisher: Wisdom Village Publications
Review Posted Online: Jan. 31, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2023
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
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
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
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