Makhene's vividly rendered stories are propulsive and challenging.
Linked stories of life in Soweto, South Africa, animate the region’s fraught history of colonization and apartheid.
Makhene shapes her debut story collection around suburban Soweto, from its inception during apartheid as the South-Western Townships until its eventual incorporation into Johannesburg proper. Makhene weds the region's evolving geography with a distinct sense of place, as in the title story, “Innards,” which opens on Ntatemogolo’s family farm, “a plump parcel on rich red earth” where generations have shepherded goats and sheep and buried umbilical cords in the ground according to tradition. The aging Ntatemogolo must sell offal to make ends meet, and Makhene renders these disparaged innards into treasure, each heart with “a bright gold fat blanketing the angry muscle.” In other stories, ambitious narrative conceits don't always deliver. “7678B Old Potchefstroom Road,” narrated by the home at that address, yields a conventional plot about a family reunion. But “7678B Chris Hani Road” reveals that Old Potchefstroom Road has been renamed for the leader of the South African Communist Party and artfully traces the connections between land and family back through history. Throughout the stories, Makhene peppers her prose with Dutch, Afrikaans, and South African English. Quick internet translations will reward diligent readers, but the book's most striking multilingual moments arrive when characters add their own flavor of interpretation. In “Star Colored Tears,” a young man reflects on the word ninkumpupie, which sounds like “something you maybe drop from your mouth because it is hot inside from all the sweet potatoes you eat.”
Makhene's vividly rendered stories are propulsive and challenging.Pub Date: June 6, 2023
ISBN: 9781324051008
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Norton
Review Posted Online: March 13, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2023
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
A dark and twisty look at just how far one woman is willing to go to find inspiration.
A struggling writer finds an unexpected muse when a mysterious man shows up at her cabin.
Petra Rose used to pump out a bestselling book every six months, but then the adaptation happened—that is, the disastrous film adaptation of her most famous book. The movie changed the book’s storyline so egregiously that fans couldn’t forgive her, and the ensuing harassment sent Petra into hiding and gave her a serious case of writer’s block. Petra’s one hope is her solo writing retreat at a remote cabin, where she can escape the distractions of real life and focus on her next book, a story about a woman having an affair with a cop. When officer Nathaniel Saint shows up at her cabin door, inspiration comes flooding back. Much like the character from Petra’s book, Saint is married, and he’s willing to be Petra’s muse, helping her get into her characters’ heads. Petra’s book is practically writing itself, but is the game she’s playing a little too dangerous? Does she know when to stop—and, more importantly, is Saint willing to stop? Hoover is no stranger to controversial movie adaptations and internet backlash, but she clarifies in a note to readers that she’s “just a writer writing about a writer” and that no further connections to her own life are contained in these pages—which is a good thing, because the book takes some horrifying twists and turns. Petra finds herself inexplicably attracted to Saint, even as she describes him as “such an asshole,” and her feelings for him veer between love and hate. The novel serves as a meta commentary on the dark romance genre—as Petra puts it, “Even though, as readers, we wouldn’t want to live out some of the fantasies we read about, it doesn’t mean we don’t enjoy reading those things.”
A dark and twisty look at just how far one woman is willing to go to find inspiration.Pub Date: Jan. 13, 2026
ISBN: 9781662539374
Page Count: -
Publisher: Montlake
Review Posted Online: Sept. 27, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2025
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