A powerful novel about lifelong female friendships against a backdrop of political upheaval and family secrets.
In 1940s Port-au-Prince, two girls from different economic classes strike up a friendship—until a secret separates them.
In her last novel, What Storm, What Thunder (2021), Chancy used a large cast of characters to examine the devastating 2010 earthquake in Haiti, which killed hundreds of thousands and left more than a million people homeless. In her moving second novel, the Haitian Canadian American writer probes Haiti’s history and culture through a narrower lens. Sisi and Gertie become friends quickly, despite the differences in their circumstances. Sisi exists in a small, warm world of women—her mother, sister, and grandmother—who work hard for what little they have, while Gertie is part of a large, wealthy clan, with haughty older siblings, an often-absent father, and a society-obsessed mother who frets over the darkness of Gertie’s skin. Sisi and Gertie navigate these divides until a tragedy reveals family secrets that drive them apart. Chancy follows their paths as they grow up and eventually flee an increasingly unrecognizable and dangerous Haiti. The author touches on Haiti’s collapsing political system and the violence and horror that follow with a palpable sense of sorrow. But though she shines a light on colorism, racism, and abuses of power, this remains primarily a personal story, with beautifully fleshed out characters and a bone-deep understanding of the inexorable pull of the past and how regret can all too easily overwhelm our lives. As adults, Sisi and Gertie wonder if they can renew their ties, now with husbands, children, and everyday obstacles in the mix. Doing so will be a challenge, but Chancy holds out the possibility of hope: Some bonds simply can’t be broken, she writes, if only we are willing to nurture them.
A powerful novel about lifelong female friendships against a backdrop of political upheaval and family secrets.Pub Date: April 2, 2024
ISBN: 9781959030379
Page Count: 300
Publisher: Tin House
Review Posted Online: Jan. 5, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2024
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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