A captivating account of a boy’s friendship with a charismatic loner who may be much more than he seems; an enticing,...
A man reflects on the remarkable best friend he had when he was a boy in Istanbul.
Tarsin, the eloquent, self-effacing narrator of Neco’s (Survivor, 2016, etc.) novel, was born the son of a poor farmer a day’s journey from the teeming metropolis of Istanbul. During a time of economic hardship, his father sends him to the city and Tarsin finds himself abandoned there, sleeping in a park and wondering what to do. He’s saved by a young boy named Eşref, who takes him to a nearby “yuva,” a state-run home for abandoned children, where Tarsin soon fits in with the rest of the kids and comes to forget his old life and embrace his new one. Foremost among the things he likes is Eşref himself, who becomes Tarsin’s best friend. (“He was my brother, my father, and my mother,” Tarsin tells readers. “He was my life.”) The bulk of Tarsin’s reminiscences dwell on the exotic freedom and wonder of boys exploring Istanbul (“a gigantic Turkish rug, layers of intrigue, tradition and warmth”) and coming to know each other. In time, Eşref confesses to Tarsin that he’s half-djinn, possessed of wild magic that allows him to sense and alleviate the crushing loneliness felt by so many people in the big city. Eşref’s quiet conviction on the point is counterbalanced by the later revelations of his blithe, cynical mother about the abuse he may have suffered at the hands of her boorish lover. By the time the much-older Tarsin is telling these stories, all of the facts have blurred with nostalgia. Likewise readers are never quite sure what store to place in Tarsin’s repeated hints that Eşref may have killed people—this is one of a handful of undeveloped plot elements in the narrative (the touching student-teacher relationship between Eşref and a retired literature professor is also left a bit sketchy). The pages brim with atmospheric details about life in Istanbul, and the simple joys of young friendship are captured beautifully, but the book’s actual tale can feel at times under-told.
A captivating account of a boy’s friendship with a charismatic loner who may be much more than he seems; an enticing, page-turning read.Pub Date: Feb. 9, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-5084-1871-9
Page Count: 246
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: Oct. 4, 2016
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
It's hard to read but hard to look away from.
When two women who share a birthday meet, a journalist becomes the subject of her own true-crime mystery.
On their 45th birthdays, Josie Fair and Alix Summer meet at a pub and discover they were born not only on the same day, but in the same hospital. Alix is a successful journalist, and Josie convinces Alix that her story is worth telling: Josie met her husband when she was 13 and he was 40. “I can see that maybe I was being used, that maybe I was even being groomed?” she confesses to Alix. “But that feeling of being powerful, right at the start, when I was still in control. I miss that sometimes. I really do. And what I’d like, more than anything, is to get it back.” From this premise Alix creates a Netflix series, Hi! I’m Your Birthday Twin! which investigates Josie’s life as she reconciles what happened to her as a teen and seeks a new path. With the story unfinished, the narrative unfolds in the present tense, with prose that jingles like song lyrics: “He turns to see if the girl is behind him, and sees her wishy-washy, wavy-wavy, in double vision through the glass windows of the hotel.” Alix is both intrigued and repulsed by Josie, but she initially gives her the benefit of the doubt. After all, Alix’s husband, Nathan, has a drinking problem, and Alix knows what it’s like to be reluctant to leave a bad situation. But Josie seems more interested in being part of Alix’s seemingly glamorous life than she is in fixing her own, and when three people end up dead and Alix’s life is turned upside down, the evidence points to Josie—and turns the TV series into a murder mystery. Transcripts from Alix’s interviews alternate with the narrative, offering increasingly varied perspectives on Josie’s story as told by her neighbors, friends, and family members. With so many versions of events, the ending shatters, leaving readers to decide whose is the truth.
It's hard to read but hard to look away from.Pub Date: Aug. 8, 2023
ISBN: 9781982179007
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Atria
Review Posted Online: May 24, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2023
A tale that’s hard to believe but easy to swallow in a single gulp.
A bear is hunting prey in Wyoming’s Bighorns. And not just any bear.
It’s bad enough that Clay Hutmacher, who manages the Double Diamond Ranch, has lost his son, Clay Jr., to a vicious attack by a grizzly bear. What’s much worse is that Clay Jr.—who’d been about to pop the question to game warden Joe Pickett’s daughter, Sheridan—is only the first of the victims over an exceptionally broad geographical area. Marshal Marvin Bertignolli is clawed and bitten to death over in Hanna. Sgt. Ryan Winner is found bleeding out north of Rawlins. Former Twelve Sleep County prosecutor Dulcie Schalk, one of two survivors of an ambush, doesn’t survive her final encounter. The four experts chosen to kill the grizzly rope Joe into their expedition, but since their quarry keeps turning up far from the last sighting, the most meaningful confrontation the Predator Attack Team has is with a pair of Mama Bears, animal rights activists who demand due process for Tisiphone, as they’ve dubbed the presumed killer. Box, who’s far too canny to leave Tisiphone alone on center stage, follows Joe’s old antagonist Dallas Cates as the ex–rodeo star is released from prison and embarks on his revenge tour, which takes him to Lee Ogburn-Russell, an inventor whose life Dallas saved, and Axel Soledad, a correspondent who shares so many enemies with Dallas that he suggests they go after them together. Franchise fans will appreciate new details about Joe’s complicated family, the obligatory high-country landscapes, and yet another corrupt law enforcer.
A tale that’s hard to believe but easy to swallow in a single gulp.Pub Date: Feb. 27, 2024
ISBN: 9780593331347
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Putnam
Review Posted Online: Jan. 5, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2024
© Copyright 2024 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.
bookshelf
