A thoughtful, complex exploration of art and womanhood.
In this debut novel, a walk through an art exhibition slowly reveals the history of the artist.
Seven years after Alice Snyder’s death, her daughter Violet is back in Washington, D.C., for a posthumous exhibition of her brilliant but complicated mother’s work as put together by her beloved younger sister, Marigold, who’s also an artist. As Violet wanders through her mercurial mother’s artworks, exhibited mostly chronologically, author Mitchell Donahue inserts museum labels describing each one, and follows them with snapshots of Alice’s life. The chapters set in the first room, with Alice’s paintings of her young daughters in classical style, focus on the girls’ memories of that time, as they carefully tiptoe around their mother’s moods, doing their best to keep the peace with their ever-patient father as Alice struggles to juggle being an artist and a mother. The second room, with the three-dimensional fabric pieces that defined Alice’s later work, shifts to a time before the girls’ birth, as college-aged Alice; her future husband, Arthur, an astronomer; and Gabriel Grant, her then-boyfriend, a rich artist, dance around each other in a precarious web of relationships that create the off-balance family the girls inherit. As the novel moves ahead, even as it goes backward in time, each character becomes more human. Mitchell Donahue weaves a tale that will make the reader want to flip back and reread, as details later in the book clarify earlier moments in new and interesting ways. Despite knowing from the very first pages how Alice’s story will end, it’s almost impossible not to be drawn into the complicated, slowly unfolding chaos of Alice’s life as each artwork—each chapter—adds another dimension to her character. Still, her many faces—muse, artist, wife, and mother—can’t encompass all of her. Her daughters can never fully know her and neither can the reader.
A thoughtful, complex exploration of art and womanhood.Pub Date: March 3, 2026
ISBN: 9798998954764
Page Count: -
Publisher: Galiot Press
Review Posted Online: Feb. 16, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2026
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
© Copyright 2026 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
