A gripping novel of revelations and redemption with a searching and sympathetic character at its core.
A writer reluctantly takes on writing a book about the life and mysterious death of his former teacher and mentor in Graubart’s novel.
Pulitzer Prize–winning pop culture writer Judah Loeb is compelled by his brother-in-law / agent to revive an abandoned project: a book about the life and death (by presumed suicide) of Chaim Lerner, a Holocaust survivor and “famous public intellectual [and] radical theologian.” A trip to Israel in 2005 to work on the book proves triggering—Lerner was Loeb’s professor when Loeb lived and studied abroad in 1982. (Loeb’s own wife killed herself, and her body was found by their then 5-year-old daughter, Hannah.) Loeb has been fascinated by Chaim’s death, a fall from the outdoor patio of his apartment building. Did he actually commit suicide? “There were reasons for doubt,” Loeb writes. Hannah, who as a teenager accompanied Loeb to Israel, thinks the answer is obvious: He was murdered, she asserts. Loeb and Hannah return to Israel in the present day for the funeral of Chaim’s widow, a prominent politician. Perhaps closure awaits Loeb in the truth about Chaim’s death, a revelation about his wife’s suicide, and his relationships with his daughter and Michal, whom he loved when he was a student in Israel. Loeb wants to know the whys, but, as the now grown-up and married Hannah tells him, “‘Why’ is not the right question.” In this novel, Graubart, a rabbi, grapples with primal and provocative questions about suicide and trauma. Was Chaim’s death because of the Holocaust? “Was he one of Hitler’s last victims, just delayed, done in by PTSD and not the gas chamber? Can thinking too much about God, good, and evil have fatal consequences?” These are good discussion starters; the circumstances surrounding Chaim’s death, which are relatively predictable, are less so. Still, Loeb’s fraught emotional and religious journey remains compelling.
A gripping novel of revelations and redemption with a searching and sympathetic character at its core.Pub Date: Oct. 22, 2024
ISBN: 9798888244852
Page Count: 286
Publisher: Koehler Books
Review Posted Online: Aug. 19, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2024
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
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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