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
A melodramatic family saga with a side of romance.
A divorced couple finds love again.
Yasmen and Josiah Wade have been divorced for two years. They met in college, and after marrying, they opened a successful restaurant in Atlanta and started a family. Their seemingly rock-solid marriage went off course after two tragic losses: Josiah’s beloved aunt died, and their much-desired third child was stillborn. Yasmen suffered from brutal, agonizing depression, and, unable to cope with their grief and sadness, the two agreed to a divorce. Now, Yasmen and Josiah co-parent and manage their business, and both are trying to move on with their lives. The catalyst for change is when Josiah starts dating again. Yasmen is surprised to find feelings she thought were long dead rising up to the surface—attraction, possessiveness, and love. What if their divorce was a mistake? The novel is stuffed full of melodrama and angst as Yasmen and Josiah care for their kids, decide if they should expand the business, and explore their wholly unexpected reconnection. Notably, the book shows the benefits of therapy for both children and adults. Josiah resisted therapy after the loss of their baby but now agrees to see a therapist as a model for his son who has been struggling at school. Josiah’s willingness to finally talk about his feelings allows the couple to open up about the end of their marriage, paving the way for a new future together. Colleen Hoover fans looking for a dramatic emotional journey starring people in their 30s will find what they are looking for here.
A melodramatic family saga with a side of romance.Pub Date: Nov. 15, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-5387-0679-4
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Forever
Review Posted Online: Aug. 30, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2022
Gorgeous and alive.
A fable of being and belonging from the author of The Map of Salt and Stars (2018).
This is the story of two artists who are connected by secret histories. This is also the story of a trans man struggling to come out to the people closest to him and a woman who found new love even though her way of desiring seemed impossible in the time and place in which she was born. This is a story about immigrants. This is a ghost story, and the specters that haunt its pages are literal and figurative. And this is a story about birds. What binds all these disparate strands together are Joukhadar’s deep sympathy for his characters and his powerfully poetic voice. One-half of the novel is set in contemporary New York. The narrator is unnamed because the name he was given at birth no longer fits him. As he tries to express his true gender, he addresses his dead mother as if her absence makes his transition impossible. “There is so much of you—and, therefore, of myself—that I will never know,” he writes. Laila Z’s tale begins in 1920, in French-occupied Syria. After her family immigrates to America, she becomes an acclaimed illustrator of birds. The unnamed narrator knows her work because she was his ornithologist mother’s favorite artist, and, when he stumbles upon Laila’s diary, he finds the key to unlocking himself. Joukhadar is writing for a general American audience about people who are often categorized as “other.” Both narrators are Syrian American, as are most of the significant characters. Many of these characters are also queer. The author creates a world for his characters in which readers who are perhaps unfamiliar with the communities being represented can find their way around, but he does not feel compelled to translate and explain. And Joukhadar’s prose style—folkloric, lyrical, and emotionally intense—creates its own atmosphere.
Gorgeous and alive.Pub Date: Nov. 3, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-9821-2149-5
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Atria
Review Posted Online: March 1, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2020
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