While a bit repetitive, this captivating tale about a curious relationship will keep readers guessing.
A literary novel focuses on the distinctive relationship of two disparate souls.
Brigitte Weichmann, 48, is in Dijon, France. When readers first meet her, she is attending a support group for people dealing with loss. French is not Brigitte’s native language, and although the German woman sometimes stumbles with her words, she gets her point across: She is mourning the death of her only son, Michael. It is in the support group that she meets Christian Rolland. Christian, 35, is still getting over his divorce from a woman named Sylvie. Christian runs a bookshop in town and there is nothing that he loves more than reading. Brigitte, on the other hand, does not read. She has a penchant for musicals, particularly ones made before 1970. She is also a woman of immense wealth who can travel wherever she pleases. Despite this option, she decides to rent an apartment in Dijon. But where is her time with Christian leading? Brigitte is sometimes confused about the status of her own marriage to a factory owner named Hans. Perhaps she should go back to Hans. Or maybe she just needs more time to think about Michael. The desire to see what happens with Brigitte and Christian keeps Dragnić’s engaging story moving. Even deep into the book—translated from German by the author and Rose—the two characters’ fate remains a mystery. Will they fall in love? Have a falling out? Brigitte’s oddities add to her appeal. She is a woman who “would like to live in the black and white world of a black and white movie.” But a great deal about these characters winds up being repeated. For instance, readers already know about Christian’s divorce and yet he is keen to tell Brigitte flatly of what happened to his wife: “We’re divorced.” Likewise, readers are regularly reminded that Brigitte’s son is dead, a point that tends to eventually lose its dramatic impact. The intrigue comes not from the main characters’ pasts but their intertwined future.
While a bit repetitive, this captivating tale about a curious relationship will keep readers guessing.Pub Date: Nov. 13, 2024
ISBN: 9798338277027
Page Count: 254
Publisher: Self
Review Posted Online: Jan. 3, 2025
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
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
SEEN & HEARD
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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