Poignant, disturbing, and historically and dramatically riveting.
In Dáil’s historical novel, a woman discovers her Jewish lineage when her estranged mother dies.
Prompted by the serendipitous discovery of her own previously unknown Jewish lineage, the author was inspired to imagine the life of a young woman leaving behind Germany and her family in 1912 to reconnect with a fiancé who had already emigrated to the United States. This story of the fictional Nathalie Weiss, her daughters Sarah and Rachael Rosenblum, and her namesake granddaughter, Natalie Barlow, is also an account of the struggle of Jewish immigrants who found themselves unwelcome in an increasingly antisemitic America. Readers meet Nathalie in 1910 Germany as she argues with her parents, who insist that it is time for her to marry. The matchmaker has chosen 29-year-old Eitan Rosenblum to be her betrothed (“he is now ready to finally settle down and become serious about life”). Despite Eitan’s determination to emigrate to the United States, a marriage contract is signed, and the couple agrees that Eitan will leave first, with Nathalie following him when she is ready to leave home. Two years later, she arrives in Elyria, Ohio, but despite her best efforts, she always feels like a stranger in an unfamiliar and threatening land. (Being both Jewish and German is a double hit.) Her daughters counter the bigotry by adopting false identities: When they leave home, Sarah changes her name to Sally Rose, and Rachael becomes Charlotte Rose. Charlotte’s daughter, Natalie, slowly unravels the complicated, occasionally confusing web of family secrets revealed through the letters and journals Charlotte left behind, written mostly in German. When Natalie enlists translation help from a disenchanted priest, their ensuing romance lifts the weight of America’s long-standing history of bigotry toward immigrants and anyone not white, Protestant, and male. The narrative, alternating between past and present, is packed full of information about the Jewish experience; Dáil skillfully captures Sally and Charlotte’s terror of being discovered. The story, a carefully composed study of emotional and psychological damage endured by those forced to hide their heritage, also serves as a cautionary message relevant to today’s culture of hostility toward immigrants.
Poignant, disturbing, and historically and dramatically riveting.Pub Date: Oct. 17, 2025
ISBN: 9781964700373
Page Count: 446
Publisher: Historium Press
Review Posted Online: Oct. 25, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2025
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 dark and twisty look at just how far one woman is willing to go to find inspiration.
A struggling writer finds an unexpected muse when a mysterious man shows up at her cabin.
Petra Rose used to pump out a bestselling book every six months, but then the adaptation happened—that is, the disastrous film adaptation of her most famous book. The movie changed the book’s storyline so egregiously that fans couldn’t forgive her, and the ensuing harassment sent Petra into hiding and gave her a serious case of writer’s block. Petra’s one hope is her solo writing retreat at a remote cabin, where she can escape the distractions of real life and focus on her next book, a story about a woman having an affair with a cop. When officer Nathaniel Saint shows up at her cabin door, inspiration comes flooding back. Much like the character from Petra’s book, Saint is married, and he’s willing to be Petra’s muse, helping her get into her characters’ heads. Petra’s book is practically writing itself, but is the game she’s playing a little too dangerous? Does she know when to stop—and, more importantly, is Saint willing to stop? Hoover is no stranger to controversial movie adaptations and internet backlash, but she clarifies in a note to readers that she’s “just a writer writing about a writer” and that no further connections to her own life are contained in these pages—which is a good thing, because the book takes some horrifying twists and turns. Petra finds herself inexplicably attracted to Saint, even as she describes him as “such an asshole,” and her feelings for him veer between love and hate. The novel serves as a meta commentary on the dark romance genre—as Petra puts it, “Even though, as readers, we wouldn’t want to live out some of the fantasies we read about, it doesn’t mean we don’t enjoy reading those things.”
A dark and twisty look at just how far one woman is willing to go to find inspiration.Pub Date: Jan. 13, 2026
ISBN: 9781662539374
Page Count: -
Publisher: Montlake
Review Posted Online: Sept. 27, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2025
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