A masterwork of modern European letters that should earn the author a wide readership outside his homeland.
Vast, generous-spirited story of family across the face of the 20th century in the turbulent Balkans.
“Around the subject of my elder uncle there was silence.” So writes the prolific Bosnia-born Croatian journalist, novelist, and poet Jergović at the beginning of this epic. That silence, born of an accident of history and bloodlines, surrounds much of his family in this blend of memoir and fiction. (It is seldom clear where fact shades into invention.) The uncle’s maternal grandfather, Jergović’s great-grandfather, was an ethnic German who spoke only German to his children, and although his Croatian and Slovene sons-in-law spoke German fluently, he spoke to them only in their languages. Fastidious about his Germanness and the difference of others, that great-grandfather nonetheless stood alongside Jews, Turks, Croatians, Hungarians, Bulgarians, and all the other diverse people who made up the population of Sarajevo; during World War II, when those ethnic distinctions were made matters of life and death, he sheltered his neighbors from the Croatian fascists, the Ustaše, “not primarily because he was a good and unselfish man, but because they were an important part of his own world.” In short, Opapa couldn’t imagine a monocultural life. Jergović himself, old enough to remember life in socialist Yugoslavia before it splintered in civil war, recounts being breastfed at birth by “an unknown Muslim woman,” further evidence of universality in a time of ethnic hatred. Jergović’s pages are peppered with walk-ons from Bosnian, Serbian, and Croatian history, such as a feared interrogator who, after retiring, “had a small house with a large garden full of roses, which he cared for himself, breeding some and buying others from various parts of the world.” Even monsters, it seems, are susceptible to beauty. There is beauty aplenty, and ample monstrosity, in Jergović’s account, as well as many moments of mystery: a beekeeper’s coded journal, the alpenglow that surrounds Sarajevo as surely as a besieging army, the “living torment” that is existence, all come under Jergović’s empathetic eye.
A masterwork of modern European letters that should earn the author a wide readership outside his homeland.Pub Date: June 15, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-939810-52-6
Page Count: 500
Publisher: Archipelago
Review Posted Online: Feb. 9, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2021
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
With captivating dialogue, angst-y characters, and a couple of steamy sex scenes, Hoover has done it again.
After being released from prison, a young woman tries to reconnect with her 5-year-old daughter despite having killed the girl’s father.
Kenna didn’t even know she was pregnant until after she was sent to prison for murdering her boyfriend, Scotty. When her baby girl, Diem, was born, she was forced to give custody to Scotty’s parents. Now that she’s been released, Kenna is intent on getting to know her daughter, but Scotty’s parents won’t give her a chance to tell them what really happened the night their son died. Instead, they file a restraining order preventing Kenna from so much as introducing herself to Diem. Handsome, self-assured Ledger, who was Scotty’s best friend, is another key adult in Diem’s life. He’s helping her grandparents raise her, and he too blames Kenna for Scotty’s death. Even so, there’s something about her that haunts him. Kenna feels the pull, too, and seems to be seeking Ledger out despite his judgmental behavior. As Ledger gets to know Kenna and acknowledges his attraction to her, he begins to wonder if maybe he and Scotty’s parents have judged her unfairly. Even so, Ledger is afraid that if he surrenders to his feelings, Scotty’s parents will kick him out of Diem’s life. As Kenna and Ledger continue to mourn for Scotty, they also grieve the future they cannot have with each other. Told alternatively from Kenna’s and Ledger’s perspectives, the story explores the myriad ways in which snap judgments based on partial information can derail people’s lives. Built on a foundation of death and grief, this story has an undercurrent of sadness. As usual, however, the author has created compelling characters who are magnetic and sympathetic enough to pull readers in. In addition to grief, the novel also deftly explores complex issues such as guilt, self-doubt, redemption, and forgiveness.
With captivating dialogue, angst-y characters, and a couple of steamy sex scenes, Hoover has done it again.Pub Date: Jan. 18, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-5420-2560-7
Page Count: 335
Publisher: Montlake Romance
Review Posted Online: Oct. 12, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2021
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