A heartwarming and idiosyncratic story of personal growth and friendship.
Rosenberg’s debut coming-of-age novel tells an eventful story of a young New Yorker’s life in the South.
After a brief prologue, the story opens by setting the scene of Yosef Bamberger’s old life, before everything changed for him and his family. In 1970s Brooklyn, he was a 12-year-old boy who was looking forward to his bar mitzvah, enjoyed playing arcade games with his classmates, and had few worries. On the evening of his birthday, however, his father dropped a bomb, announcing that they were all moving to Oak Ridge, Tennessee. Once they get there, Yosef is determined to make at least one friend as quickly as possible, and he does: Calvin Macafee, whom Yosef describes as “a giant, freckled, redhead redneck of Scotch-Irish descent”—someone who has a different background, a different religion, a different family structure, and a different worldview than Yosef. However, this doesn’t stop the pair from getting up to lighthearted and fun adventures. By the time they’re in high school, however, they encounter drugs, alcohol, and even get involved in a murder case involving a member of Calvin’s family. Rosenberg’s novel ambitiously tackles themes of religion, bigotry, family, and puberty, and presents these concepts and experiences in a refreshingly offbeat way. It discusses difficult issues, such as prejudice, in a smart, hard-hitting manner, while simultaneously developing Yosef’s character as a sweet and likable young man. Historical novels of adolescence are common, but this one has substance and diversity that others in the genre often lack, and it handles its heavy themes in a skillful way that results in moments of unexpected profundity.
A heartwarming and idiosyncratic story of personal growth and friendship.Pub Date: Jan. 17, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-66780-680-8
Page Count: 432
Publisher: BookBaby
Review Posted Online: March 8, 2022
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
Have tissues ready as you read this. A small package will do.
A love story about a life of second chances.
In Nassau, in the Bahamas, casino detective Vincent LaPorta grills Alfie Logan, who’d come up a winner three times in a row at the roulette table and walked away with $2 million. “How did you do it?” asks the detective. Alfie calmly denies cheating. You wired all the money to a Gianna Rule, LaPorta says. Why? To explain, Alfie produces a composition book with the words “For the Boss, to Be Read Upon My Death” written on the cover. Read this for answers, Alfie suggests, calling it a love story. His mother had passed along to him a strange trait: He can say “Twice!” and go back to a specific time and place to have a do-over. But it only works once for any particular moment, and then he must live with the new consequences. He can only do this for himself and can’t prevent anyone from dying. Alfie regularly uses his power—failing to impress a girl the first time, he finds out more about her, goes back in time, and presto! She likes him. The premise is of course not credible—LaPorta doesn’t buy it either—but it’s intriguing. Most people would probably love to go back and unsay something. The story’s focus is on Alfie’s love for Gianna and whether it’s requited, unrequited, or both. In any case, he’s obsessed with her. He’s a good man, though, an intelligent person with ordinary human failings and a solid moral compass. Albom writes in a warm, easy style that transports the reader to a world of second chances and what-ifs, where spirituality lies close to the surface but never intrudes on the story. Though a cynic will call it sappy, anyone who is sick to their core from the daily news will enjoy this escape from reality.
Have tissues ready as you read this. A small package will do.Pub Date: Oct. 7, 2025
ISBN: 9780062406682
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: July 18, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2025
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
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