A witty, irony-rich coming-of-age story.
A stalled writer returns home to Wales to tend to his ailing father in this comic debut.
Hill, the antihero of Roberts’ brisk but surprisingly deep first novel, is preoccupied with a host of crises that exist largely in his head. Put him on an airplane and he’ll imagine it crashing; give him a promise of a movie deal and he’ll foresee failure. (Multiple interludes show him struggling to send a thank-you email to Jack Black, who took a pitch meeting with him.) The low-grade stressors mask the deeper issues he's been evading: His wife's recent death; his mother’s death years ago, which he hasn’t come to terms with; and his strained relationship with his dying father, Roger, who’s asked Hill to come to his home near Bangor, Wales, to help him. In short order, Hill finds another escape hatch: an affair with Roger’s caretaker, Trudy. The two have little long-term potential; she’s leaving for grad school in Australia in a few months. But during the course of the novel, she’s a good-humored centering influence. If Hill is hard to fully sympathize with (he’s got a lot of man-child in him), Roberts is aware of the stuntedness, and Hill’s interior monologues are both funny and underscore his anxiety. Roberts’ earthy, bantering style recalls Roddy Doyle’s boozy Irish blokes, albeit at more of an emotional remove. That means it’s not entirely persuasive when the floodgates fly open in the latter sections; Hill and Roger’s tense relationship is kept at too much of a distance. But the storytelling is appealingly unvarnished, and Hill’s relationship with Trudy earns a tenderness despite (or perhaps because of) its ultimate doom. “Humans are generally an abomination,” Trudy tells him, “but there’s always hope.”
A witty, irony-rich coming-of-age story.Pub Date: March 1, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-912681-49-5
Page Count: 200
Publisher: Parthian Books
Review Posted Online: Dec. 14, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2021
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
© Copyright 2025 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
