A delicate rendering of a life smothered by overwhelming loss.
A woman becomes mired in the moment that her father disappeared from her life.
In her first book published in English, Italian novelist Terranova tells an affecting tale of a woman consumed by the loss of her father, who left the house one day when she was 13 and was never heard from again. Set in Sicily, where the now 36-year-old Ida goes to help her mother clear out the family’s apartment in preparation for selling, the novel evokes the world so palpably portrayed by Elena Ferrante, a comparison underscored by Ida’s troubled relationship with Sara, a young woman who had been her closest friend but now spurns her efforts to reconnect. The tension between Ida and Sara is likely to remind readers of Ferrante’s Elena and Lila, of My Brilliant Friend. Terranova’s restrained, graceful prose, translated by former New Yorker editor Goldstein, deftly captures Ida’s sorrow and anger. Her father had been depressed for years, and while Ida’s mother went off to work, Ida was left to feed him lunch and watch him as he lay in bed, day after day. When he disappeared, she was consumed with guilt. “Those who disappear redraw time,” she thinks, “and a circle of obsessions envelops the survivors.” She and her mother never talked about what happened. Their world, she says, “had gotten stuck,” and each carried out “a stubborn pretense that nothing was wrong,” never confiding their despair, even to one another, never asking anyone for help. Their family of two, she reflects, was “maimed and full of silences.” During her brief return to Sicily, surrounded by artifacts of her past, Ida is forced both to confront painful memories and to face the effects of her self-absorption and deeply held identity as “the daughter of the absence” of her father.
A delicate rendering of a life smothered by overwhelming loss.Pub Date: Aug. 25, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-64421-007-9
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Seven Stories
Review Posted Online: June 2, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2020
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 pleasant if not entirely convincing tribute to the power of art.
A French art historian’s English-language fiction debut combines the story of a loving relationship between a grandfather and granddaughter with an enlightening discussion of art.
One day, when 10-year-old Mona removes the necklace given to her by her now-dead grandmother, she experiences a frightening, hour-long bout of blindness. Her parents take her to the doctor, who gives her a variety of tests and also advises that she see a psychiatrist. Her grandfather Henry tells her parents that he will take care of that assignment, but instead, he takes Mona on weekly visits to either the Louvre, the Musée d’Orsay, or the Centre Pompidou, where each week they study a single work of art, gazing at it deeply and then discussing its impact and history and the biography of its maker. For the reader’s benefit, Schlesser also describes each of the works in scrupulous detail. As the year goes on, Mona faces the usual challenges of elementary school life and the experiences of being an only child, and slowly begins to understand the causes of her temporary blindness. Primarily an amble through a few dozen of Schlesser’s favorite works of art—some well known and others less so, from Botticelli and da Vinci through Basquiat and Bourgeois—the novel would probably benefit from being read at a leisurely pace. While the dialogue between Henry and the preternaturally patient and precocious Mona sometimes strains credulity, readers who don’t have easy access to the museums of Paris may enjoy this vicarious trip in the company of a guide who focuses equally on that which can be seen and the context that can’t be. Come for the novel, stay for the introductory art history course.
A pleasant if not entirely convincing tribute to the power of art.Pub Date: Aug. 26, 2025
ISBN: 9798889661115
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Europa Editions
Review Posted Online: June 7, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2025
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
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