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THE FOREST BRIMS OVER

A sprightly, compelling tale with magical realist flair in which a novelist’s muse takes charge of her own story.

In this novel by Japanese writer Ayase, the first of her 18 works to be translated into English, a writer's wife transforms into a forest.

Ayase begins with the third-person point of view of an editor named Sekiguchi Masashi, who's visiting the house of Nowatari Tetsuya, a well-known novelist whose salacious debut featured thinly veiled details about his sexy young wife, Rui. None of his subsequent books have been as successful, and Sekiguchi is trying to help him with ideas. While there, he overhears the couple fight, and soon afterward Rui begins to sprout buds and leaves: She's turning into a forest because she suspects her husband of infidelity. Instead of taking her to the hospital, Nowatari writes a novel called Garden. And it’s really good! Sekiguchi finds himself in a moral quandary. "This horrifying situation, and the literary work based on it, were ultimately Nowatari’s sin. Sekiguchi was just supposed to receive his breathtaking manuscript and deliver it to the world....His job was no more than that, he repeated to himself over and over.” Meanwhile, in his own marriage, the editor fails to understand the ways he burdens his wife. In the second section, the point of view switches to the student Nowatari is having his affair with; he loves her “emptiness and purity.” Ayase’s concerns are contemporary gender roles, sexism in publishing (and society generally), and the relationship between exploitation and art. Her examination has depth and nuance. Male characters reflect on the pressures to compete and the perils of the succeed-or-die mentality. Meanwhile Rui’s forest grows and spreads, affecting the entire town. When Sekiguchi moves to another department, the young woman assigned to be Nowatari's new editor asks the writer a single blunt question.

A sprightly, compelling tale with magical realist flair in which a novelist’s muse takes charge of her own story.

Pub Date: July 25, 2023

ISBN: 9781640095373

Page Count: 208

Publisher: Counterpoint

Review Posted Online: May 24, 2023

Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2023

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THE BLUE HOUR

This propulsive thriller twists into the dark and bloody underbelly of the world of fine art.

The discovery that a revered artist’s sculpture contains a human bone sets off scandal and violence.

Art historian James Becker has what seems like a sweet deal. He’s the curator of the collection of the Fairburn Foundation, housed at a stately home owned by the Lennox family: Sebastian, Becker’s best friend, and his bitter mother, Lady Emmeline. Becker’s wife, Helena, was Sebastian’s fiancee first, but they’re all very civilized about it and happily awaiting the birth of her baby. The centerpiece of the Fairburn collection is works by the late Vanessa Chapman, an artist about whom Becker wrote his thesis, and with whom he is somewhat obsessed. Partly, it’s because of her great talent, but she was also a glamorous figure, a beauty who, as she became successful, sequestered herself on an isolated Scottish tidal island called Eris. She had a dark side—lots of stormy relationships, plus a philandering mooch of a husband who vanished without a trace a few decades ago. Her reputation, though, has risen after her death—so much so that the Fairburn has loaned some of her works to the Tate Modern. That’s where a forensic anthropologist sees one of her sculptures, made of found objects that include what’s described as an animal bone. The scientist is sure the bone is human, and soon Becker finds himself scrambling to prevent scandal. Vanessa willed her works and papers to the foundation, but some of them are still on Eris, guarded by her longtime friend Grace Haswell. A retired doctor, Grace lived with Vanessa off and on over the years and nursed her through her fatal cancer. It was a surprise when Vanessa left her estate not to Grace but to Douglas Lennox, Emmeline’s husband and Sebastian’s father. Douglas was Vanessa’s gallerist and lover, but the two had a nasty falling-out. Sebastian is so frustrated by Grace’s refusal to turn over all of the bequest that he’s ready to sue her, but Becker believes he can negotiate, so off to the the island he goes. He finds far more treachery and shocking secrets than he expected, past and present alike. Hawkins keeps her cast tight, her wild setting ominous, and her plot moving fast.

This propulsive thriller twists into the dark and bloody underbelly of the world of fine art.

Pub Date: Oct. 29, 2024

ISBN: 9780063396524

Page Count: 320

Publisher: Mariner Books

Review Posted Online: Sept. 14, 2024

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2024

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INTERMEZZO

Though not perfect, a clear leap forward for Rooney; her grandmaster status remains intact.

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  • Kirkus Reviews'
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  • New York Times Bestseller

Two brothers—one a lawyer, one a chess prodigy—work through the death of their father, their complicated romantic lives, and their even more tangled relationship with each other.

Ten years separate the Koubek brothers. In his early 30s, Peter has turned his past as a university debating champ into a career as a progressive lawyer in Dublin. Ivan is just out of college, struggling to make ends meet through freelance data analysis and reckoning with his recent free fall in the world chess rankings. When their father dies of cancer, the cracks in the brothers’ relationship widen. “Complete oddball” Ivan falls in love with an older woman, an arts center employee, which freaks Peter out. Peter juggles two women at once: free-spirited college student Naomi and his ex-girlfriend Sylvia, whose life has changed drastically since a car accident left her in chronic pain. Emotional chaos abounds. Rooney has struck a satisfying blend of the things she’s best at—sensitively rendered characters, intimacies, consideration of social and philosophical issues—with newer moves. Having the book’s protagonists navigating a familial rather than romantic relationship seems a natural next step for Rooney, with her astutely empathic perception, and the sections from Peter’s point of view show Rooney pushing her style into new territory with clipped, fragmented, almost impressionistic sentences. (Peter on Sylvia: “Must wonder what he’s really here for: repentance, maybe. Bless me for I have. Not like that, he wants to tell her. Why then. Terror of solitude.”) The risk: Peter comes across as a slightly blurry character, even to himself—he’s no match for the indelible Ivan—so readers may find these sections less propulsive at best or over-stylized at worst. Overall, though, the pages still fly; the characters remain reach-out-and-touch-them real.

Though not perfect, a clear leap forward for Rooney; her grandmaster status remains intact.

Pub Date: Sept. 24, 2024

ISBN: 9780374602635

Page Count: 464

Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux

Review Posted Online: July 4, 2024

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2024

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