A thoughtful and tender exploration of grief and secrets.
In Matthews’ novel, a young Australian man discovers his late cousin’s secret life.
Dan Molina had always been a generous father figure to his 31-year-old cousin, Jamie Barrio, who manages Dan’s collectibles shop. In the wake of Dan’s death, Jamie struggles to adjust to the new reality of his life in Sydney, Australia, without him. Days after the funeral, a lawyer contacts Jamie with Dan’s final gift: a mysterious thumb drive containing hours of audio files. Jamie soon finds that each recording is a spoken letter by Dan, addressed to a mysterious “Ethan” and ending with the salutation “With love, Dad.” Jamie is baffled; is Ethan the child of a secret love affair? Why would Dan want Jamie to find out about it like this? Intrigued, Jamie plunges into the files, which tell the story of his late cousin’s trip to Perth, when abdominal pain landed him in the hospital. “I’ve never been so afraid as I am now,” Dan says, as he explains to the mysterious Ethan that doctors couldn’t determine what was wrong with him. He also tells Ethan about his childhood as a boy who was constantly teased for his weight; his struggles to connect with his own emotionally distant father; how he met Beatrice, his future wife and the love of his life; and how he became a respected consultant. Buried in the family mythology, however, is something deeper and more melancholy: “Was the road I chose the one less travelled by?” Dan asks Ethan, before he speaks of learning about bisexuality and queerness. Jamie soon realizes that these tapes reveal not only the up and downs of Dan’s life, but also deep secrets about his sexuality.
In an introduction, Matthews notes that his novel is based on a true story, and one that he found “instantly intriguing” and “painfully beautiful.” One could describe his book in a similar manner, as it grabs one’s attention from the beginning with several unfolding mysteries. Readers will find themselves asking some of the same questions as Jamie: Who is Ethan, and why did Dan share these communications with Jamie? Matthew smartly layers the narrative with multiple perspectives; alongside Jamie’s and Dan’s points of view is that of Dan’s nurse during his hospital stay, who contributes her own recollections. However, it’s Dan’s mournful, pensive voice that makes the strongest impression. His reflections on family life, especially as the child of immigrants from Uruguay, are filled with engaging observations and heartbreaking moments, whether he’s speaking of how his father continually disappointed him or his own hesitation to give in same-sex attractions. Matthews takes his time getting to the queer aspects of the story, and as a result, some of the earlier passages focused on Dan’s professional life, or his experience of the hospital, feel as if they’re merely stalling for time before bigger reveals. It all leads to a satisfying emotional conclusion, though, which connects to issues involving family, sexuality, and what it means to truly understand a loved one.
A thoughtful and tender exploration of grief and secrets.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: -
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: Oct. 14, 2024
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A tender and moving portrait about the transcendent power of art and friendship.
An artwork’s value grows if you understand the stories of the people who inspired it.
Never in her wildest dreams would foster kid Louisa dream of meeting C. Jat, the famous painter of The One of the Sea, which depicts a group of young teens on a pier on a hot summer’s day. But in Backman’s latest, that’s just what happens—an unexpected (but not unbelievable) set of circumstances causes their paths to collide right before the dying 39-year-old artist’s departure from the world. One of his final acts is to bequeath that painting to Louisa, who has endured a string of violent foster homes since her mother abandoned her as a child. Selling the painting will change her life—but can she do it? Before deciding, she accompanies Ted, one of the artist’s close friends and one of the young teens captured in that celebrated painting, on a train journey to take the artist’s ashes to his hometown. She wants to know all about the painting, which launched Jat’s career at age 14, and the circle of beloved friends who inspired it. The bestselling author of A Man Called Ove (2014) and other novels, Backman gives us a heartwarming story about how these friends, set adrift by the violence and unhappiness of their homes, found each other and created a new definition of family. “You think you’re alone,” one character explains, “but there are others like you, people who stand in front of white walls and blank paper and only see magical things. One day one of them will recognize you and call out: ‘You’re one of us!’” As Ted tells stories about his friends—how Jat doubted his talents but found a champion in fiery Joar, who took on every bully to defend him; how Ali brought an excitement to their circle that was “like a blinding light, like a heart attack”—Louisa recognizes herself as a kindred soul and feels a calling to realize her own artistic gifts. What she decides to do with the painting is part of a caper worthy of the stories that Ted tells her. The novel is humorous, poignant, and always life-affirming, even when describing the bleakness of the teens’ early lives. “Art is a fragile magic, just like love,” as someone tells Louisa, “and that’s humanity’s only defense against death.”
A tender and moving portrait about the transcendent power of art and friendship.Pub Date: May 6, 2025
ISBN: 9781982112820
Page Count: 448
Publisher: Atria
Review Posted Online: July 4, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2025
Uneven but fitfully amusing.
Betrayed by her husband, a severely depressed young woman gets drawn into the over-the-top festivities at a lavish wedding.
Phoebe Stone, who teaches English literature at a St. Louis college, is plotting her own demise. Her husband, Matt, has left her for another woman, and Phoebe is taking it hard. Indeed, she's determined just where and how she will end it all: at an oceanfront hotel in Newport, where she will lie on a king-sized canopy bed and take a bottle of her cat’s painkillers. At the hotel, Phoebe meets bride-to-be Lila, a headstrong rich girl presiding over her own extravagant six-day wedding celebration. Lila thought she had booked every room in the hotel, and learning of Phoebe's suicidal intentions, she forbids this stray guest from disrupting the nuptials: “No. You definitely can’t kill yourself. This is my wedding week.” After the punchy opening, a grim flashback to the meltdown of Phoebe's marriage temporarily darkens the mood, but things pick up when spoiled Lila interrupts Phoebe's preparations and sweeps her up in the wedding juggernaut. The slide from earnest drama to broad farce is somewhat jarring, but from this point on, Espach crafts an enjoyable—if overstuffed—comedy of manners. When the original maid of honor drops out, Phoebe is persuaded, against her better judgment, to take her place. There’s some fun to be had here: The wedding party—including groom-to-be Gary, a widower, and his 11-year-old daughter—takes surfing lessons; the women in the group have a session with a Sex Woman. But it all goes on too long, and the humor can seem forced, reaching a low point when someone has sex with the vintage wedding car (you don’t want to know the details). Later, when two characters have a meet-cute in a hot tub, readers will guess exactly how the marriage plot resolves.
Uneven but fitfully amusing.Pub Date: July 30, 2024
ISBN: 9781250899576
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Henry Holt
Review Posted Online: Sept. 13, 2024
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