A tale of demonic possession becomes a dazzling exploration of art, desire, and the lingering wounds of Dominican history.
A feverish, genre-defying journey through the underworld of Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, fueled by demons, heavy metal, and political ghosts.
“Rudy was a suit Asmodeus could put on, he could see through his eyes, he could grip with his hands, walk with his feet": In Indiana’s startling and inventive tale of demonic possession, Asmodeus is an ancient spirit whose powers are fading. After decades inhabiting Rudy—a Dominican heavy metal star whose body has been ravaged by a career full of drugs, sex, and rock ‘n’ roll—the demon desperately seeks a replacement before it’s too late. An acclaimed Dominican novelist, singer-songwriter, and producer, Indiana chronicles a frantic week in which Asmodeus ricochets among potential candidates on his “pentagram-shaped rollercoaster ride” through Santo Domingo’s underworld in the 1990s. The novel opens with familiar supernatural props and entities—demons, witches, possession, spells—but Indiana quickly transforms the plot into something far richer. Asmodeus’ search for another host turns into a tour of a vivid cast of damaged souls, including Mireya, the witch who first paired him with Rudy; Guinea, a handsome young man whom Asmodeus covets “for the exciting brusqueness of a young body in which to kick around the present”; Sayuri, the object of Guinea’s affection; Claudio, a wealthy and sadistic young man dabbling in the black arts; and Rocío, a blindingly bright archangel who annoys Asmodeus to no end. Through these and other characters, Indiana paints a striking portrait of Dominican society and the lingering scars caused by years of dictatorship. Characters like Arsenio, Mireya’s dying father and a former torturer under the Balaguer regime, connect the supernatural with the country’s history of repression and violence. Indiana is a fearless and lyrical writer, weaving these strands with reflections on the fragile nature of art as Rudy returns to his youthful poetic ambitions and writes a play. Asmodeus influences the composition of Rudy’s décimas, rendered beautifully in Obejas’ translation, and the lines between inspiration and possession blur. What Indiana writes of Rudy’s listening to Black Sabbath’s “War Pigs”—that it “had the energy of the dead, a vengeful and medieval zest that made your guts vibrate”—aptly describes this gritty and evocative tale, too.
A tale of demonic possession becomes a dazzling exploration of art, desire, and the lingering wounds of Dominican history.Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2026
ISBN: 9781644454107
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Graywolf
Review Posted Online: yesterday
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2026
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Fans of Stockett’s bestselling debut will love this engaging follow-up.
Stockett heads to Mississippi for another historical novel about feisty women.
This time, perhaps recalling criticisms of cultural appropriation in The Help (2009), she sticks to feisty white women, with one exception. The setting is Oxford in 1933. For two miserable years, 11-year-old Meg has lived in “the Orphan,” a county asylum for parentless girls. Chairlady Garnett—a villain so one-note she’d twirl a mustache if she had one—makes it her mission to ostracize the older girls she deems unadoptable, stigmatizing them as offspring of the “feebleminded” mothers who abandoned them. She particularly has it in for smart, sassy Meg, who refuses to believe her mother’s mysterious disappearance was deliberate. Elsewhere in Oxford, Birdie Calhoun comes to visit her sister Frances, who married a wealthy banker, to ask for money on behalf of their mother and grandmother back in Footely. Frances isn’t thrilled by this reminder of her impoverished small-town origins. But she’s trying to climb up in Oxford society by volunteering at the Orphan, the asylum’s books need to be done before the state inspector shows up in a few weeks, and Birdie is a bookkeeper. Having neatly arranged to keep Birdie in town and draw these two storylines together, Stockett goes on to spin a compulsively readable yarn with enough plot for a half-dozen novels. Birdie and Meg become friends, Meg is adopted despite Garnett’s best efforts, Meg’s mother turns up at the Orphan demanding to know where her child is—and that’s less than a quarter of the way through a long, winding narrative that keeps piling on more dramatic developments until all loose ends are neatly, if hastily, wrapped up in the final pages. Stockett might be making a point about Southern women facing facts and standing up for themselves, but mostly this is just a satisfyingly twisty tale that should make a great miniseries.
Fans of Stockett’s bestselling debut will love this engaging follow-up.Pub Date: May 5, 2026
ISBN: 9781954118812
Page Count: 656
Publisher: Spiegel & Grau
Review Posted Online: Feb. 2, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2026
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
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