A captivating—if imperfect—account of colonialism, Islam, and the burgeoning nation of Sudan.
A young woman struggles for independence alongside a nation.
Akuany is a child when her Sudanese village is raided, her father killed. She is able to survive when Yaseen, a young merchant who had been visiting from Khartoum, takes her along with him, thereby tying their fates irrevocably together. Aboulela’s latest novel is set in the late 1800s, when Sudan was still under Ottoman rule, though the cracks in that empire were beginning to show. A leader springs up, quickly gathering followers; he has proclaimed himself the Mahdi, or redeemer, prophesied in Islam. But Yaseen, who gives up his inheritance as a merchant to study the Quran, has little faith in this leader. Aboulela’s nuanced descriptions of Sudan’s history—colonial, social, and religious—are the best parts of this rich and moving novel. Even as England vies for dominion over Sudan, even as Aboulela writes about the changes in power, her prose never turns heavy-handed. Akuany is renamed Zamzam, and as her country grows increasingly violent, her own fortunes are tumultuous, as she is sold into and out of slavery, ever loyal to Yaseen, who at first thinks, “My love for Zamzam is a burden,” and, not long after, “She is not a burden but a gift. It is wrong to think otherwise.” But while Aboulela’s handling of Zamzam and Yaseen’s relationship is vivid, even captivating, she doesn’t manage the novel’s plot with quite the same verve. The pacing often feels off. Tragic or violent events take place with little warning or fanfare, and a side story about a Scottish painter isn’t fully integrated into the rest of the book. Still, there is a great deal to admire in Aboulela’s work.
A captivating—if imperfect—account of colonialism, Islam, and the burgeoning nation of Sudan.Pub Date: March 7, 2023
ISBN: 978-0-8021-6066-9
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Grove
Review Posted Online: Dec. 23, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2023
An engaging, imaginative narrative hampered by its lack of subtlety.
The Medusa myth, reimagined as an Afrocentric, feminist tale with the Gorgon recast as avenging hero.
In mythological Greece, where gods still have a hand in the lives of humans, 17-year-old Medusa lives on an island with her parents, old sea gods who were overthrown at the rise of the Olympians, and her sisters, Euryale and Stheno. The elder sisters dote on Medusa and bond over the care of her “locs...my dearest physical possession.” Their idyll is broken when Euryale is engaged to be married to a cruel demi-god. Medusa intervenes, and a chain of events leads her to a meeting with the goddess Athena, who sees in her intelligence, curiosity, and a useful bit of rage. Athena chooses Medusa for training in Athens to become a priestess at the Parthenon. She joins the other acolytes, a group of teenage girls who bond, bicker, and compete in various challenges for their place at the temple. As an outsider, Medusa is bullied (even in ancient Athens white girls rudely grab a Black girl’s hair) and finds a best friend in Apollonia. She also meets a nameless boy who always seems to be there whenever she is in need; this turns out to be Poseidon, who is grooming the inexplicably naïve Medusa. When he rapes her, Athena finds out and punishes Medusa and her sisters by transforming their locs into snakes. The sisters become Gorgons, and when colonizing men try to claim their island, the killing begins. Telling a story of Black female power through the lens of ancient myth is conceptually appealing, but this novel published as adult fiction reads as though intended for a younger audience.
An engaging, imaginative narrative hampered by its lack of subtlety.Pub Date: Nov. 18, 2025
ISBN: 9780593733769
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: Aug. 16, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 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
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