A slow and muddled coming-of-age tale that relies on its innovative style to carry the day.
In this tale of philosophical and spiritual self-discovery, two girls—one living in a fairy-tale-like world and the other in New York City—share commonalities despite the ways their stories set them apart.
Cohen’s new novel is split into two distinct stories. One follows Ani, who finds her life turned upside down when the Captain, the man who has ostensibly been looking after her, leaves the grounds of his home without any coherent explanation. Determined to find him and bring him back, Ani leaves as well, with only her bicycle and a small, helpless kitten that shouldn’t be away from its mother—and is, on some level, undoubtedly a metaphor for Ani herself—for company. Ani’s journey is a strange and winding odyssey in which she meets a bevy of strange and wise characters and recounts the trauma of her own youth to readers as a story within a story. Meanwhile, in New York City, Annamae Galinsky is dealing with her own trials and tribulations as she navigates young adulthood alongside her mother and older brother, Danny. Deeply lonely despite the companionship she finds in the odd inhabitants of her Manhattan neighborhood, Annamae feels the pull of friendship and a reflection of herself and her struggles, which readers will know to be Ani navigating her own faraway fantasy world. The thing about this novel that will capture the attention and imagination of readers is the original format in which it is told. While Ani and Annamae’s tales can be read in chronological order, it’s noted that the sections can be read in reverse order as well, and the final chapters are printed in columns so that both stories can exist on the same page. It’s a fascinating premise (though better suited to a physical edition of the book), and the result works almost as an artistic Choose Your Own Adventure book.
A slow and muddled coming-of-age tale that relies on its innovative style to carry the day.Pub Date: May 21, 2024
ISBN: 9781954276253
Page Count: 416
Publisher: Bellevue Literary Press
Review Posted Online: Feb. 17, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2024
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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