Check it out for the charming illustrations.
In a fable about an archery guru, Coelho returns to his New Age niche.
This is a loose agglomeration of half-baked philosophical principals masquerading as a novel. The plot is thin: At an indeterminate time in a place vaguely resembling Japan, a stranger comes to the village where Tetsuya, a former master archer, has chosen an anonymous existence as a carpenter. This is the classic sensei-apprentice scenario, the Karate Kid with everything removed but the aphorisms. The stranger has flushed out Tetsuya, with the mixed motives of wanting to show off his own bow-and-arrow chops and ask for pointers. Tetsuya puts the stranger’s skills to the test. The stranger, the archer, and a local boy who will become his apprentice head for a rickety bridge suspended across a chasm. From this precarious perch, swaying in the wind, Tetsuya fires off a perfect hit—piercing a peach at 20 meters. But the stranger is rattled by the danger and misses. Thereby hangs a rather obvious lesson—it’s important to train for difficult as well as optimal circumstances. Spoiler alert: This is the book’s last action sequence, and it’s only the prologue. The novel proper takes the form of Tetsuya’s lectures to the boy as they return to the village. The “way of the bow” so imparted can be summed up as: We are what we continually do; find your tribe; preparation is everything; breathe; maintain elegant posture; be here now. Such tenets, of course, serve any number of disciplines. The ultimate takeaway is confusing—the thing you are best at may not be the thing you love, and you should always embrace the latter as your ultimate calling, as Tetsuya has chosen carpentry. Imagery by Niemann, the compact format, and plenty of white space make this look like an ideal gift book, but the platitudinous text is an afterthought.
Check it out for the charming illustrations.Pub Date: Nov. 10, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-593-31827-0
Page Count: 160
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: Oct. 26, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2020
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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