A worthy addition to novels about powerful women, despite some shallow glosses on character motivations.
Filled with carefully researched detail, this action-packed fictional portrait of the ancient and mysterious Egyptian empress follows her from adolescence until her end.
Cleopatra VII is a Ptolemy, heir to the throne of Egypt—but as many of us think we know, she came to a tragic end due to her ill-fated love affairs and poor military strategy. Author El-Arifi pulls from many scholarly sources to create her novel’s queen, a woman of Africa who owes nothing to future mythologizing; she’s a healer, a would-be scholar, and a fiercely loving mother. This Cleopatra lives for her people; loves freely, both men and women; and leaves little to chance, employing care and cruelty in equal measures. Her great documented loves, Julius Caesar and Marcus Antonius, appear, but so does her life’s companion, Charmion, not to mention her perfidious siblings, sister Arsinoe and brother Theos. At one point, Cleopatra says of her sister, “We had been close once; our secrets were each other’s. But somewhere along the paths of our lives we had diverged”— but she never explains how or why. Cleopatra goes out of her way in other sections to describe her emotions, so her silence on her relationship with Arsinoe feels odd, due both to their kinship and their eventual clashes. This lacuna might indicate cultural difference, as well as attention to context—we now acknowledge that emotions might be different depending on eras—but given the plethora of emotions otherwise imputed to this dynamic queen, it’s a puzzling omission. We also now acknowledge family estrangement, but we usually see a first-person narrator understanding why a breach has occurred. Still, this Pharaoh’s imperious ability to here don gem-laden robes, there order a royal family’s murders, or hold an intimate banquet of boar and goose is a vision of absolute power and absolute control. If Cleopatra occasionally contradicts herself, claiming to care more for her family than for her people, it seems to be such a maverick’s prerogative.
A worthy addition to novels about powerful women, despite some shallow glosses on character motivations.Pub Date: Feb. 24, 2026
ISBN: 9780593875643
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: Dec. 26, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 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
The best-selling author of tearjerkers like Angel Falls (2000) serves up yet another mountain of mush, topped off with...
Talk-show queen takes tumble as millions jeer.
Nora Bridges is a wildly popular radio spokesperson for family-first virtues, but her loyal listeners don't know that she walked out on her husband and teenaged daughters years ago and didn't look back. Now that a former lover has sold racy pix of naked Nora and horny himself to a national tabloid, her estranged daughter Ruby, an unsuccessful stand-up comic in Los Angeles, has been approached to pen a tell-all. Greedy for the fat fee she's been promised, Ruby agrees and heads for the San Juan Islands, eager to get reacquainted with the mom she plans to betray. Once in the family homestead, nasty Ruby alternately sulks and glares at her mother, who is temporarily wheelchair-bound as a result of a post-scandal car crash. Uncaring, Ruby begins writing her side of the story when she's not strolling on the beach with former sweetheart Dean Sloan, the son of wealthy socialites who basically ignored him and his gay brother Eric. Eric, now dying of cancer and also in a wheelchair, has returned to the island. This dismal threesome catch up on old times, recalling their childhood idylls on the island. After Ruby's perfect big sister Caroline shows up, there's another round of heartfelt talk. Nora gradually reveals the truth about her unloving husband and her late father's alcoholism, which led her to seek the approval of others at the cost of her own peace of mind. And so on. Ruby is aghast to discover that she doesn't know everything after all, but Dean offers her subdued comfort. Happy endings await almost everyone—except for readers of this nobly preachy snifflefest.
The best-selling author of tearjerkers like Angel Falls (2000) serves up yet another mountain of mush, topped off with syrupy platitudes about life and love.Pub Date: March 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-609-60737-5
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2001
© Copyright 2026 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.
