An ambitious novel hampered by its convoluted structure.
In Chawla’s multigenerational family saga, a girl born to a Muslim mother and a Hindu father reflects on the turmoil of her home city of Ayodhya, India.
Saanvi Trivedi is born on December 6th, 1992, the same day the Babri Masjid, an important 16th-century mosque, is demolished by Hindu extremists. In place of the mosque, the Hindus intend to build a temple to the god Rama. Because she was born to a Muslim mother, Yasmin Khan, and a Hindu father, Ramesh Trivedi, her birth bucks the ages of conflict that characterize Ayodhya. Her father, an academic who eventually pivots to politics, met and fell in love with her mother, a poet, in Lucknow, India; the two eloped in a clandestine marriage in a small Hindu temple. Ramesh and Yasmin are both the children of politicians and activists on opposite sides of the Babri Masjid / Ram temple debate; Yasmin’s father is a Muslim organizer who is galvanized into action after the killing of his son by a Hindu mob, while Ramesh’s father helped spearhead the movement to build the Ram temple. Yasmin learns that her own mother converted to Islam and was disowned by her family for marrying a Muslim man. As Saanvi uncovers family histories, her relationship with her parents is tested when her father becomes involved in the Hindu Party, against the wishes of both Saanvi and her mother. In these interwoven family narratives, Chawla establishes a very rich sense of place in Ayodhya. The author tackles grief and silence elegantly; the most memorable passages are about Yasmin and her mother coming to terms with the now-empty room of her late brother. But as a whole, the novel is hampered by its nonlinear, often repetitive storytelling; the same event—Saanvi’s birth—gets replayed over and over again, while Saanvi as a character remains opaque. (“My heart was pungent with a very complex mix of emotions,” she muses, rather vaguely.) The novel is about turmoil, but it offers little insight into the person underneath the murky tidepool of conflicting allegiances.
An ambitious novel hampered by its convoluted structure.Pub Date: Nov. 3, 2025
ISBN: 9781965784280
Page Count: 416
Publisher: Pierian Springs Press
Review Posted Online: Jan. 27, 2026
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
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