A novel that sags under the weight of improbable dialogue, two-dimensional characters, and various anachronisms.
Two refugees struggle to build new lives.
As its title suggests, this novel is concerned with refugees. On one side, there’s Naïm Rahil, a 14-year-old piano prodigy from current-day Aleppo whose left hand is mangled by shelling. On the other, there’s Marguerite Toutoungi, born in 1925, the middle daughter of an elite Beirut family that made its fortune from tobacco. While her parents hope to marry her off, Marguerite longs only to study music at the Conservatoire de Paris; both plans are foiled when she falls in love with the son of a Cuban tobacco farmer. Late in the novel, of course, both halves of the story converge. The author’s construction is awkward—haphazard, even—while his dialogue frequently feels overshadowed by Hollywood scripts in a way that seems completely divorced from the way people actually speak. After the event that destroys his hand and most of his family, Naïm wakes up in the hospital. “ 'Where’s Dad?' ” he asks Fatima, his mother. “Fatima’s gaze seemed to harden. She started to speak, then shook her head, cleared her throat, looked away. Her implication was clear. ‘Anyone?’ he asked. She shook her head slightly.” The scene wouldn’t be out of place in an action movie, but that doesn’t seem to have been Toutonghi’s intent. Then, too, he has a habit of using current-day standards to evaluate things that would have preceded those standards—as, for example, when Marguerite considers that “her work had been validated.” It’s the early 20th century, and Marguerite is in Beirut: Would she really use validation language?
A novel that sags under the weight of improbable dialogue, two-dimensional characters, and various anachronisms.Pub Date: Oct. 10, 2023
ISBN: 9781668007433
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Aug. 12, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2023
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
Though uneven, this is still a pleasurable, comforting read.
Infertility, family secrets, and alpacas all figure in Quindlen’s latest meditation on mothering and domesticity.
Polly’s life looks enviable. Happily married to the adoring Mark—a vet at the Bronx Zoo—she teaches English at a private Manhattan girls’ school and loves her work. She has a protective older brother and close girlfriends, who’ve formed a book club where no one is expected to read the book. But Polly desperately wants a child and, at 42, knows time is running out. She and Mark have gone through endless fertility treatments, to no avail. Meantime, Polly’s friends have given her a DNA kit as a jokey birthday gift, and something mysterious shows up in the test results. Then, out of nowhere, a young woman contacts her, suggesting they may be related. That’s not all: Polly feels estranged from her mother, a revered judge who’s insufficiently maternal in her daughter’s view. Her father has always cherished her, but he’s in a nursing home now with a rapidly failing mind. And something is amiss with her best pal, Sarah. Quindlen’s trademark empathy is evident throughout, and her wry humor leavens some of the serious goings-on. Early on, Mark and Polly visit a fertility clinic with photos of babies in the waiting room; for Polly, “it felt…like a Weight Watchers facility with hot fudge sundae pictures on the wall.” Then we meet these charming alpacas, humming and pronking, on a farm run by an earth mother, whose wisdom will help Polly get on with her life. The plot swerves around a bit, there may be one surplus narrative thread (e.g., Polly’s star student Josephine running aground after graduation), and at the end, the author ties things up too neatly, pushing the “circle of life” theme too hard.
Though uneven, this is still a pleasurable, comforting read.Pub Date: Feb. 24, 2026
ISBN: 9780593734605
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: Nov. 22, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2026
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