A sensitive and well-plotted re-creation of perhaps the most scientifically and culturally significant era in French history.
An adventure tale featuring medicine, madness, and art in Meek’s historical novel set in 19th-century France.
Young Sabrine Weiss is talented, beautiful, innocent, and deeply disturbed. She’s also subject to what seem to be epileptic fits. When the novel opens, her fiercely protective older sister, Julie, has liberated her from the Salpêtrière, the most famous teaching asylum in Europe, hoping that the wider and more stimulating world of the Paris art scene will prove therapeutic. Julie is an editor and translator with ties to the vibrant Impressionist community, and all the expected scenesters are here: Cezanne, Degas, Pissarro, Monet and Manet, Gauguin, and Vincent van Gogh and his fiercely protective brother, Theo. Vincent, of course, is also deeply disturbed, famously slicing off his ear and committing suicide at 37. (Sabrine and Vincent eventually become soul mates.) Julie has many talents, among them hypnosis, by which she can probe a person’s distant past; she also can coax their dreams from them, which is her friend Sigmund Freud’s cue to enter the story. Will Sabrine be cured of her epilepsy, and her traumatic secret unearthed? This epic battle of science versus faith is one of the novel’s recurring themes, while medical advances and discoveries also take center stage. Freud’s alienist theories were just beginning to be warily respected. He had been the mentee of the famous Dr. Charcot, director the Salpêtrière, but they eventually parted ways. Julie sums it up by insisting (rightly) that the cause of her sister’s disturbed mind is not physiological (per Charcot) but psychological (per Freud). Meek notes changes in the three challenging decades that ushered in modern science and modern sensibilities. He’s a competent writer and keeps the plot moving. He revels in detailed scenes like the artists’ wild parties; and, in the denouement, readers get a sympathetic portrait of “Father” Pissarro, getting on in years but still delighting in the service of art. It’s a wonderfully upbeat note to end on.
A sensitive and well-plotted re-creation of perhaps the most scientifically and culturally significant era in French history.Pub Date: April 30, 2024
ISBN: 9781962465342
Page Count: 654
Publisher: Historium Press
Review Posted Online: July 12, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 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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