Unsettling and evocative, NDiaye’s short novel distills dreams and truths alike.
Short, sharp, and deceptively simple.
Lucie—the narrator of NDiaye’s surreal portrait of a woman’s identity in flux—is a witch. Unfortunately, she’s not very accomplished at her craft, which has been passed down through generations of women in her family. When she begins to instruct her 12-year-old twin daughters, Maud and Lise, about the mysterious powers she possesses, they dutifully absorb her lessons. One of them remarks, “No offense, Mama, but really, it’s all just so lame,” but soon both girls far surpass her in the occult arts. While Lucie sheds pale tears only tinged with red, the girls manifest their powers by crying actual tears of blood. Lucie’s moody, unhappy salesman husband, the aptly named Pierrot—French for clown—flees the family home with funds entrusted to Lucie by her father. Her efforts to recover the money and reunite her parents, whose own marriage has dissolved, are conveyed in NDiaye’s trademark dreamlike style. (Some episodes might better be called nightmares.) Lucie grapples with her uneven relationship with Pierrot’s mother, and a visit to her home provides Maud and Lise with an eerie, macabre opportunity to practice their developing supernatural skills on Pierrot’s pregnant sister, their hapless aunt. A relationship with a repulsive, conniving neighbor results in an opportunity for Lucie to teach divination at Isabelle O.’s Women’s University of Spiritual Health, where the spurious curriculum includes an Introduction to Therapeutic Colors. (In NDiaye’s ironic twist on Lucie’s tenure there, Lucie has to defend herself against charges of fraud by asserting her status as a “sort of witch.”) Originally published in France in 1996, NDiaye’s concise tale of female power, maternal identity, and family secrets has been ably translated by Stump, a frequent collaborator.
Unsettling and evocative, NDiaye’s short novel distills dreams and truths alike.Pub Date: April 14, 2026
ISBN: 9798217006809
Page Count: 144
Publisher: Vintage
Review Posted Online: Feb. 2, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 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
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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