Brilliantly imagined, stylishly written, satisfyingly plotted, full of delicious surprises: all in all, hella fun.
The further adventures of Anne Boleyn, post-decapitation.
“First, learn you are in your own grave. Next, unwrap your headless body from its shroud. Then, unwrap your head.” Lehmann’s debut novel (following several collections of poetry) begins as Anne wakes up in a wooden box, climbs out, tucks her head under her arm, and leaves the church. She steals a boat and crosses the Thames to a rough neighborhood where she’s able to snag some sleeping woman’s sewing basket and reattach her head to her neck, covering it with a collar made from a silk cloth once used to swaddle her daughter, Elizabeth—she’d hidden it in her bodice on the way to her execution so she could be buried with it. Head in place, she goes out into the neighborhood to find something to eat and plot her revenge. The version of Anne that Lehmann has created is both familiar and novel: To the willful, passionate, ambitious character depicted in myriad historical and fictional accounts, she adds plenty of utterly original embroidery (this Anne is a bit of an intellectual, and also bi!). Fans of Wolf Hall will enjoy Lehmann’s versions of the many common characters, from Henry and Cromwell to Thomas Wyatt and Jane Seymour; though this book has a wild ghost-story premise, it ends up being just as convincing, and the prose has an ungaudy lyricism, a lucidity, and a timeless quality that stands up to Mantel’s. The various urban and rural settings are evoked with such convincing detail that we have no problem accepting the appearance of a white bull in the forest that follows the resurrected royal “like a puppy” and eventually becomes both transportation and security guard. Another invented character, a part-time prostitute named Alice whom our heroine meets on the streets early on, helps Anne out of many a jam and is the focus of a compelling plot line about friendship, social class, and women’s lot in 16th-century England.
Brilliantly imagined, stylishly written, satisfyingly plotted, full of delicious surprises: all in all, hella fun.Pub Date: March 24, 2026
ISBN: 9798217086481
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: Dec. 6, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2026
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
SEEN & HEARD
A pleasant if not entirely convincing tribute to the power of art.
A French art historian’s English-language fiction debut combines the story of a loving relationship between a grandfather and granddaughter with an enlightening discussion of art.
One day, when 10-year-old Mona removes the necklace given to her by her now-dead grandmother, she experiences a frightening, hour-long bout of blindness. Her parents take her to the doctor, who gives her a variety of tests and also advises that she see a psychiatrist. Her grandfather Henry tells her parents that he will take care of that assignment, but instead, he takes Mona on weekly visits to either the Louvre, the Musée d’Orsay, or the Centre Pompidou, where each week they study a single work of art, gazing at it deeply and then discussing its impact and history and the biography of its maker. For the reader’s benefit, Schlesser also describes each of the works in scrupulous detail. As the year goes on, Mona faces the usual challenges of elementary school life and the experiences of being an only child, and slowly begins to understand the causes of her temporary blindness. Primarily an amble through a few dozen of Schlesser’s favorite works of art—some well known and others less so, from Botticelli and da Vinci through Basquiat and Bourgeois—the novel would probably benefit from being read at a leisurely pace. While the dialogue between Henry and the preternaturally patient and precocious Mona sometimes strains credulity, readers who don’t have easy access to the museums of Paris may enjoy this vicarious trip in the company of a guide who focuses equally on that which can be seen and the context that can’t be. Come for the novel, stay for the introductory art history course.
A pleasant if not entirely convincing tribute to the power of art.Pub Date: Aug. 26, 2025
ISBN: 9798889661115
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Europa Editions
Review Posted Online: June 7, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2025
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
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