Todd vividly illustrates the power of love and community in the face of oppression.
A trans man and his chosen family struggle for survival during World War II (and after).
Bertie, a trans man, spends his days working at Berlin’s Institute for Sexual Science and his evenings enjoying the relative social freedom that prevails in the waning days of the Weimar Republic. When Hitler ascends to power, the trans community, along with others in Berlin’s vibrant gay community, are threatened by a loss of rights and burgeoning waves of street violence. Bertie and his girlfriend, Sofie, flee the city to eke out a subsistence living for the duration of World War II on a rural farm near Ulm. Originally owned by the grandparents of Bertie’s close friend Gert, the farm eventually falls to Bertie and Sofie after the welcoming, sheltering older couple dies. Shortly after Allied forces occupy the area, Karl, a frail trans man who’s escaped from Dachau, seeks shelter with Bertie and Sofie and reports the terrifying news that Allied forces are continuing—postwar—to penalize members of the “third sex” community with imprisonment under Third Reich codes of public conduct. Rather than enjoying relief from the horrors and privations of war, the close-knit trio must find ways to shield the men’s trans identities while making their way to safety in a more tolerant environment. Todd’s detailed narrative conveys the terrors and uncertainties of life during wartime: the inability to trust even close neighbors or loved ones’ true identity; the fear of attack; the wrenching horror of trying to make sense of who lived and died. The ambitions and joys of Berlin’s queer community are equally well drawn. The book is populated with historical figures, notably Dr. Magnus Hirschfeld, pioneering sexologist and founder of the Institute for Sexual Science.
Todd vividly illustrates the power of love and community in the face of oppression.Pub Date: April 29, 2025
ISBN: 9781640097032
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Counterpoint
Review Posted Online: Feb. 15, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 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
A debut novel with bright spots, but unbalanced and lacking in finesse.
A high school senior pursues an affair with her teacher.
Seventeen-year-old Waldo, the narrator of McCurdy’s fiction debut, lives in Anchorage, Alaska, with her mother, though she’s long been the parent in their relationship. She heats her own frozen meals and pays the bills on time while her mom chases man after man and makes well-meaning promises she never keeps. Waldo blows her Victoria’s Secret wages on online shopping sprees and binges on junk food, inevitably crashing after the fleeting highs of her indulgences. Mr. Korgy, her creative writing teacher, has “thinning hair and nose pores”; he’s 40 years old and married with a child. Nevertheless—or possibly as a result?—Waldo’s attraction to him is “instant. So sudden it’s alarming. So palpable it’s confusing.” Mr. Korgy professes to want to keep their friendship aboveboard, but after a sexual encounter at the school’s winter formal that she initiates, an affair begins. Will this reckless pursuit be the one that actually satisfies Waldo, and is she as mature as she thinks she is? Waldo is a keen observer of people and provides sharp commentary on the punishing work of female beauty. Readers of McCurdy’s bestselling memoir, I’m Glad My Mom Died (2022), will surely be curious about the tumultuous mother-daughter relationship, and it is one of the novel’s highlights, full of realistic pity and anger and need. (“I want to scream at her. I want her to hug me.”) Unfortunately, the prose is often unwieldy and sometimes downright cringeworthy: When Waldo tells Mr. Korgy she loves him, “The words hang in the air in that constipated way they do when you know that you shouldn’t have said them.” Waldo frequently lists emotions and adjectives in triplicate, and events that could be significant aren’t sufficiently explored or given enough space to breathe before the novel races on to the next thing.
A debut novel with bright spots, but unbalanced and lacking in finesse.Pub Date: Jan. 20, 2026
ISBN: 9780593723739
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: Nov. 22, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2026
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
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