A unique, decades-spanning story of friendship, love, and literature.
A mother’s and daughter’s journeys in the publishing world both begin with a lack of desk space.
Rebecca Blume doesn’t want to share her desk. It’s 2022, and the publishing house where Rebecca is an editor has decided to return to the office on a hybrid schedule, implementing a technique called “hot desking,” by which Avenue employees share their desks with people from another imprint, Hawk Mills, on their work-from-home days. Not only must Rebecca sacrifice her carefully curated decor, but her desk partner, Ben Heath, is a bit of a slob, leading to passive-aggressive, sometimes-flirty Post-it notes and online banter. If that weren’t stressful enough, the recent death of literary lion Edward David Adams—yes, he’s actually known as the Lion—has left the publishing world in a tizzy, and his widow, Rose, specifically requested Rebecca’s help in handling his estate. Rebecca has no known relation to the Lion, though her mother, Jane, did intern for his literary magazine in the 1980s. It turns out that the Lion wrote a manuscript before he died that intimates a love triangle among her mother, Rose, and himself. It won’t be long before everyone will want to get their hands on the posthumous manuscript, including the Lion’s party animal son, Atticus, and Rebecca’s own hot-desk partner. In a debut spanning decades, Dickerman leads readers on a funny, heartwarming journey through two generations’ involvement in the publishing industry. The author touches on the AIDS epidemic and the #MeToo movement, as well as exploring female friendship and post-pandemic attempts at a new normal, adding hints of romance and comedy. Jane and Rose’s relationship in the ’80s literary scene is the standout plot by far, and readers will be eager to learn what really occurred between the two young women all those years ago. The story has a lot of moving parts, but once all the pieces finally come together, readers will find a touching, satisfying ending.
A unique, decades-spanning story of friendship, love, and literature.Pub Date: Sept. 2, 2025
ISBN: 9781668081099
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Gallery Books/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Aug. 29, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2025
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
An existential crisis that steps on its own final moments.
With only a month left until the world ends due to a swiftly approaching black hole, Don and Rodney, a retired gay couple, road-trip from Maine to Washington to spend their final days with their son.
After reports that a planet-swallowing black hole is making its way toward Earth, Rodney and Don—who have been together for 40 years and survived everything from homophobia to the HIV crisis—decide to pack their belongings into an RV, say goodbye to their neighbors, and travel from Camden, Maine, to Washington to uphold a promise to spend their final days with their son. They can’t wait any longer, since there’s already chaos around the country: “Military vehicles in the streets of most cities and towns. Looting, rioting, the burning of cars and buildings and people, all of it had already happened.” As they make their way west across the country, they encounter fellow travelers ranging from close-knit families to free-spirited hippies, some of whom have come to terms with the impending end of the world and others who haven’t. While the story seems to be asking readers what they would do if they had 30 days left to live, and reflects on what different kinds of acceptance might look like in the face of unavoidable tragedy, it loses some of its poignancy in a series of thinly padded monologues about the meaning of life. Clearly intended to pack an emotional punch, it’s failed by an abrupt ending, and the way the journey’s mystery—which will be obvious to many readers—is revealed by an info dump in the last chapter.
An existential crisis that steps on its own final moments.Pub Date: April 28, 2026
ISBN: 9781250881236
Page Count: 176
Publisher: Tor
Review Posted Online: March 9, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2026
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