The novel fires on all senses with an earthy, frank heroine who’s riveting to know and impossible to forget.
A reissued novel from a wildly original writer explodes the form with a sensual exposé of midlife.
Lavinia is 36, restless and judgmental in London or Venice but truly herself in woods and fields with the animals she loves. She is somewhat feral, in fact, and that is one of the charms of this spellbinding novel, first published in 1979. While modern life has changed radically since then, perhaps especially for women, Belben is still walloping readers with visceral vignettes. The novel arranges facets of Lavinia’s life and mind through six thematic sections: on sex and celibacy, Robin Hood (yes, from the 14th century), childhood, travel, loneliness (“In every patch a papa, a mama, and their heart-shaped-faced children, a family circle, complete, into which I intrude….I am a moth”), and the end of life for various creatures, including a beloved dog. Belben sketches scenes with a calligraphy brush and quick washes of color. Her renegade heroine recalls a solo traveler from Jean Rhys or Renata Adler, guzzling the world in elegant decrepitude. An imaginary daughter named Jessie sometimes accompanies her. Her parents haunt her, too, but the lost people she dwells on include versions of herself. Every creature and object is charged and embodied: “The dwellings had their eyelids down.” She sees herself in everything and everyone, living in layers of history and literature. Accordingly, Belben’s language is exciting, mined from biblical and Shakespearean cadences: “I am aware of isolated parts of my body which have no feeling; they feel and feel not; such as the hair on my skin.” She is unafraid of gore and puns. As singular as Belben is, she shares a juicy terrain with lusty intellects (Harold Brodkey, Jeannette Winterson); tender, rooted poets (D.H. Lawrence, Dylan Thomas); rhapsodic magpies (Gertrude Stein, James Joyce); fantastical artists (Hieronymus Bosch); and playfully morbid filmmakers (Yorgos Lanthimos, Daina Oniunas-Pusić). Belben collages a primal, dreamlike landscape that is a thrilling privilege to visit. This is social history, too, a takedown of the “old maid” as cautionary tale. It is remarkable how much younger 36 seems now than in Belben’s telling, and what Lavinia calls “the glow of celibacy” is all the rage. Readers who delight in women’s radical fantasies will also be rewarded by the wicked visions from a time when finding erotic freedom with a self-celebrated female body was revolutionary.
The novel fires on all senses with an earthy, frank heroine who’s riveting to know and impossible to forget.Pub Date: Aug. 5, 2025
ISBN: 9781916751316
Page Count: 144
Publisher: And Other Stories
Review Posted Online: Oct. 25, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2025
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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