A wild mess of a plot, but a fun wild mess, punctuated by Semple’s signature witty observations and punchlines.
A TV comedy writer turned popularizer of Stoic philosophy falls in love, is swept into an international art incident, and deals with buried trauma. For starters.
“In exchange for health insurance, an office overlooking a formal garden, and a cushy (for a philosopher!) income, I’m asked to research and write in the Library and, four days a week—here comes the weird part—provide moral training for Lionel and Layla Lockwood’s twin tween sons.” This is Adora Hazzard, daughter of self-centered Phyllis, mother of sassy Viv, spiritual trainer to the Lockwood twins’ paralyzed and one-armed father, also one of three members of what she calls a “coven,” an alliance of three women of a certain age, all residents of the same fancy hotel-gone-condo on the Upper West Side, who pledge to share their celery sticks (always too many in the bag for one person) and care for each other in their dotage. Into this forest of promising comic premises walks a handsome stranger named Digby, encountered in the standby line at the ballet, whom Adora bonds with via Grateful Dead references, immediately followed by a Code Red bomb scare at the Lockwood Library, where security is on high alert due to art crimes in Europe—OK, OK, no more plot summary, it’s simply not feasible. Suffice it to say, as fans of Where’d You Go, Bernadette (2012) are well aware, Semple is not afraid to make stuff happen. Sometimes this means leaving the occasional chunk of plot hanging, as when Adora walks out on a packed Paris lecture hall awaiting her views on “The Blight of Hope: The Stoics, Nietzsche and a New Inner Freedom” just in time to catch an explosion at the Louvre and make a quick detour to solve a mystery in the French countryside. (Are those poor people still sitting there?) And there’s a major chunk of distressing #MeToo backstory wedged into all this that seems like part of the idea for a different book. When another character wonders at how the miserable protagonist of that incident has aged into the “gorgeous, self-possessed woman and world-class flirt” that is Adora Hazzard, the answer is…Stoicism? Oh sure, why not.
A wild mess of a plot, but a fun wild mess, punctuated by Semple’s signature witty observations and punchlines.Pub Date: April 21, 2026
ISBN: 9798217176632
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Putnam
Review Posted Online: Jan. 19, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2026
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
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
© Copyright 2026 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
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