A perceptive, tender, and affirmative tale about women repairing old hurts and forging new bonds.
Three Canadians, wounded in different ways, begin to form an unlikely family in this novel about loneliness, connection, and survival.
Harley is the youngest of 19 children in an impoverished family in the small town of Brandon, Manitoba. Carelessly named for a motorcycle and born long after her family had given up caring about its new members, Harley is left with the responsibility of raising herself, with the likely outcome of sinking into her clan’s morass of alcohol, drugs, and apathy. But a native astuteness and an improbable drive toward survival allow her to recognize a lifeline when it arrives in the form of Lydia, a Winnipeg doctor who is assigned to be her mentor in a well-meaning volunteer program for at-risk girls. When Harley finds herself in trouble after a drunken night with friends, Lydia offers her a place to live and heal. Against all odds and their own inclinations, Harley and Lydia begin to trust each other, soon looping the physician’s childhood friend Meaghan into their emerging family. With warmth and mutual reliance, the three help one another negotiate abusive and neglectful relationships, disappointments, losses, and brave reimaginings as they begin to rebuild their lives and expand their circle as strong and loving women. Henderson’s poignant narrative is engrossing and optimistic, depicting the inner lives of her characters with savvy precision. Her language is incisively descriptive, as when Harley describes her extended family: “Jail or benders or loss of custody have left a little pile of children growing wild and unchecked, like suckers from a tree.” Or when Lydia characterizes the teenage Harley as “a lady person in purgatory on an uncelebrated journey with no destination.” If Harley’s transformation and Lydia’s acceptance of her into her life seem quickly accomplished, the results are so heartwarmingly satisfying that few will complain. The themes of healing and forgiveness are expanded to include the redemption of even the most unlikely characters.
A perceptive, tender, and affirmative tale about women repairing old hurts and forging new bonds.Pub Date: May 25, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-5255-6874-9
Page Count: 264
Publisher: FriesenPress
Review Posted Online: July 14, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2020
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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