Actually, Thurm does know how to deliver her very sad news: with heartbreaking clarity and profound compassion.
A close-knit family struggles with griefs old and new as one of their number succumbs to memory loss.
“I don’t know how to tell you this, the doctor is saying…” “I don’t know how to tell you this, Elisabeth began…” The title of Thurm’s novel comes up twice in the narrative; twice Rachel receives news so devastating that “in a microsecond” it capsizes her life. Just a few years ago, things were really pretty good. Her husband, Jonathan, was a beloved professor at Yale; her son, Matthew, married the right woman on his third try, a young widow, and is raising two adorable children; then, as now, Rachel tried to help her fellow New Yorkers straighten out their lives as a judge in family court. She is very close to Jonathan’s mother, Szófia, a Holocaust survivor. And despite the fact that the first life-changing news she receives is of her husband’s infidelity, the couple has moved on sufficiently to celebrate their 45th anniversary with a trip to Paris—which is right about when the signs of Jonathan’s condition emerge. He suddenly announces at a restaurant that she should get out her credit card, as he will no longer be paying for her dinners: “The Jonathan Sugarman Bank of America is closed.” When they get home, they find his house keys in the microwave. The novel follows the arc of his decline, and attends to other sorrows as well, from Szófia’s terrible backstory to Matthew’s guilty obsession with his wife’s dead first husband. Precocious, hyperarticulate Luna, who lost her biological dad when she was just 2, is a bright spot for the characters and the readers. “Wait, wasn’t that one of those iconic moments for you, the first time you saw me walking?” says this 10-year-old when her elders claim they cannot recall her first steps. There is also occasional comic relief in Rachel’s courtroom, where Thurm’s signature black humor and spot-on thumbnail portraits leaven the appalling difficulties her petitioners face.
Actually, Thurm does know how to deliver her very sad news: with heartbreaking clarity and profound compassion.Pub Date: July 15, 2025
ISBN: 9781953002570
Page Count: -
Publisher: Delphinium
Review Posted Online: April 19, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 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
SEEN & HEARD
Have tissues ready as you read this. A small package will do.
A love story about a life of second chances.
In Nassau, in the Bahamas, casino detective Vincent LaPorta grills Alfie Logan, who’d come up a winner three times in a row at the roulette table and walked away with $2 million. “How did you do it?” asks the detective. Alfie calmly denies cheating. You wired all the money to a Gianna Rule, LaPorta says. Why? To explain, Alfie produces a composition book with the words “For the Boss, to Be Read Upon My Death” written on the cover. Read this for answers, Alfie suggests, calling it a love story. His mother had passed along to him a strange trait: He can say “Twice!” and go back to a specific time and place to have a do-over. But it only works once for any particular moment, and then he must live with the new consequences. He can only do this for himself and can’t prevent anyone from dying. Alfie regularly uses his power—failing to impress a girl the first time, he finds out more about her, goes back in time, and presto! She likes him. The premise is of course not credible—LaPorta doesn’t buy it either—but it’s intriguing. Most people would probably love to go back and unsay something. The story’s focus is on Alfie’s love for Gianna and whether it’s requited, unrequited, or both. In any case, he’s obsessed with her. He’s a good man, though, an intelligent person with ordinary human failings and a solid moral compass. Albom writes in a warm, easy style that transports the reader to a world of second chances and what-ifs, where spirituality lies close to the surface but never intrudes on the story. Though a cynic will call it sappy, anyone who is sick to their core from the daily news will enjoy this escape from reality.
Have tissues ready as you read this. A small package will do.Pub Date: Oct. 7, 2025
ISBN: 9780062406682
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: July 18, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2025
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
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