A thoughtful consideration of legacies artistic and familial.
The death of a classical pianist prompts reflections from those closest to her.
Toll’s latest novel opens with news of a death in Philadelphia. Adele Pearl is survived by her husband, Victor, who was also her creative partner, and their 37-year-old son, Adam. As word spreads through the classical music community, including the music school where she taught, we learn more and more about how her death has affected the people in her orbit. In addition to her grieving husband and son, these include Dara Kingsley, an English professor at the University of Pennsylvania whose marriage has just imploded. Years earlier, she’d been in a relationship with Adam that ended because she couldn’t keep up with him musically. In reflecting on his mother’s exacting standards, Adam begins rethinking his connection with Dara—and whether he’s happy in his current relationship with Patti Lee, a talented musician who studied with his mother. In reviewing his mother’s papers, Adam discovers evidence that his parents’ marriage was more complicated than he believed—or, as Toll writes, “Adele had a private life that she kept from Victor.” The novel gradually broadens its temporal scope, encompassing Adam and Dara’s early days as a couple and exploring how the time Adele and Victor spent traveling for concerts affected their connection to their son. This expansion echoes an observation Victor makes about his chosen vocation: “Time was everything to a musician, the driving structure behind music, even more than melody or harmony.” This is a measured novel, which seems in keeping with its characters’ affability, and in the end it comes together like a seamlessly programmed night at the symphony.
A thoughtful consideration of legacies artistic and familial.Pub Date: May 6, 2025
ISBN: 9781646036004
Page Count: 234
Publisher: Regal House Publishing
Review Posted Online: July 4, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
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
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