A realistic, action-packed but uneven war tale.
A Lithuanian factory worker tries to protect his family from the violent forces of history in this novella set in the late 19th century.
Povilas Glamzo grows up on a farm in Lithuania, the son of a serf, Kazimerias, who seems destined to follow in his footsteps. But Povilas longs to live a freer, more accomplished life, and wants to avoid the drudgery of serfdom as well as the possibility of military conscription. His dream is to go out on his own and find employment at a Russian factory, a goal brought to fruition by his father’s master, Lord Nicholas Serovich, who pays his way to St. Petersburg. Povilas finds work quickly and is thrilled to join the ranks of the proletariat, but becomes disillusioned by its limited possibilities, finally seeing it as another form of serfdom. In earnest language, the protagonist laments his lot: “Men grumble for a reason. There is so much unrest and discontent here in Russia. I know why. I can see the reasons all around me. I’m coughing so much. I have to leave St. Petersburg. There must be something better out there. My dream of doing something important with my life hasn’t been fulfilled here. It’s been only a stepping-stone. But where do I go from here? God, please answer my prayer.” While he hopes to eventually become an engineer, he moves to Latvia to take a job as a metallurgist making cannonballs, a lucrative position. He also marries Sophie Zagel, the “village beauty,” and starts a family. Yet all of this is threatened when Russia and Japan go to war, and Povilas is recruited by the Imperial Russian Navy to make torpedoes for submarines. He dares not decline the offer for fear what it could mean for his family’s fate.
Velho’s tableau of the political tumult of the times is meticulously authentic—she captures with great verisimilitude the convulsions that roiled the lives of men like Povilas. In addition, this novella—not quite 100 pages—is based on the life of the author’s grandfather, and the loving attention she directs toward the subject is evident on every page. Finally, Povilas’ life is extraordinarily dramatic, the stuff of a grand cinematic saga—there is an abundance of eventful scenes packed into this short work of fiction. Unfortunately, Velho’s writing, which can be a bit awkward, makes full immersion in the story sometimes difficult. Her prose is often clumsy when she expresses Povilas’ own ruminations: “I have no particular loyalty to Russia, except that they control us. What would it mean for my family if Japan defeated Russia? This offer could change our lives—for better or worse. Submarines and torpedoes, OK. Leaving my wife and our children? That will break my heart. What if I don’t take the offer? What will the Russians do to us?”
A realistic, action-packed but uneven war tale.Pub Date: March 27, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-66555-396-4
Page Count: 114
Publisher: AuthorHouse
Review Posted Online: June 23, 2023
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
An engaging, imaginative narrative hampered by its lack of subtlety.
The Medusa myth, reimagined as an Afrocentric, feminist tale with the Gorgon recast as avenging hero.
In mythological Greece, where gods still have a hand in the lives of humans, 17-year-old Medusa lives on an island with her parents, old sea gods who were overthrown at the rise of the Olympians, and her sisters, Euryale and Stheno. The elder sisters dote on Medusa and bond over the care of her “locs...my dearest physical possession.” Their idyll is broken when Euryale is engaged to be married to a cruel demi-god. Medusa intervenes, and a chain of events leads her to a meeting with the goddess Athena, who sees in her intelligence, curiosity, and a useful bit of rage. Athena chooses Medusa for training in Athens to become a priestess at the Parthenon. She joins the other acolytes, a group of teenage girls who bond, bicker, and compete in various challenges for their place at the temple. As an outsider, Medusa is bullied (even in ancient Athens white girls rudely grab a Black girl’s hair) and finds a best friend in Apollonia. She also meets a nameless boy who always seems to be there whenever she is in need; this turns out to be Poseidon, who is grooming the inexplicably naïve Medusa. When he rapes her, Athena finds out and punishes Medusa and her sisters by transforming their locs into snakes. The sisters become Gorgons, and when colonizing men try to claim their island, the killing begins. Telling a story of Black female power through the lens of ancient myth is conceptually appealing, but this novel published as adult fiction reads as though intended for a younger audience.
An engaging, imaginative narrative hampered by its lack of subtlety.Pub Date: Nov. 18, 2025
ISBN: 9780593733769
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: Aug. 16, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2025
The lives of vividly drawn characters illuminate a lesser-known part of 20th-century history.
This engrossing historical novel focuses on the lives of three Black Americans in the aftermath of World War II.
In 1948, Ozzie Philips is a newly enlisted young soldier from Philadelphia who arrives at his station in occupied Germany just in time for the order by President Harry Truman desegregating the U.S. military. It’s inspiring news, but Ozzie will find it’s a rough transition. In 1950, Ethel Gathers is a journalist and the wife of a U.S. Army officer posted to Mannheim in occupied Germany. Unhappily childless, one day she sees a group of young biracial children tended by nuns and ends up volunteering at their orphanage. When Ethel discovers thousands of these children, born as the result of relationships between American soldiers and German women, she’s fired with purpose. In 1965 in Maryland, Sophia Clark is the ambitious teenage daughter of a hardworking farm family. When she’s unexpectedly selected for a scholarship to a fancy boarding school, she’s eager for the opportunity, if unprepared for what she’ll face as one of the first Black students to attend. The novel traces each character’s life in separate chapters, eventually revealing the connections among them. Their stories are firmly grounded in meticulous research, from the current events of each period down to details of clothing styles. Ozzie copes with the infuriating indignities imposed on “colored” soldiers despite their essential contributions, and Ethel and Sophia each learn to navigate arcane hierarchies—for Ethel, the scorekeeping of military wives and the barriers of bureaucracy, and for Sophia, the perils of boarding school. Their individual experiences are all part of the larger historical force of World War II and its influence on the Civil Rights Movement. At some points the dialogue can be stilted in its efforts to convey history, but the characters and rich details are warmly engaging.
The lives of vividly drawn characters illuminate a lesser-known part of 20th-century history.Pub Date: Feb. 10, 2026
ISBN: 9781668069912
Page Count: 464
Publisher: 37 Ink/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Jan. 19, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2026
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