An illuminating look at the value of the arts in public life and the preservation of culture—and families.
Members of an artistic British Iraqi family wrestle with the fallout from decades of secrets, seemingly endless wars, and differing values in ways that sometimes confuse and irk each other.
In the turbulent circumstances created by the Islamic State’s takeover of Iraq in 2014, Bridget Mathloum, an artist and the elderly widow of Haydar, finds herself at varying odds with her three adult daughters—Ishtar, Zainab, and Mediha—over the proper way to preserve the family’s artistic legacy. At the heart of the disagreement are friction and distrust over the disposition of a cache of paintings by Haydar, a contemporary painter who was part of an influential group that ushered in a modern arts movement in Iraq during the 1950s. Beyond that, Bridget’s daughters differ in their attitudes toward their ancestral homeland and their approaches to their personal artistic endeavors. Nizar, Zainab’s son, faces his own existential dilemma after his return from a tour as a war correspondent in Yemen and his exposure to terrible brutality and inhumanity. As the family works out how to best preserve and promote their legacy, larger questions loom involving the fallibility of memory, personal responsibility in the face of state overreach, and the value of women’s work in the arts. The corrosive effects of war on the psyche of residents of the Middle East is summed up neatly in an exchange between Nizar and a new lover; when he explains that his own father had died “in the war” before he was born, the not unexpected reply is, “Which war?” A selected timeline of Iraqi history from 1917 to 2014 is included in the text, as well as an author’s note explaining the historical figures upon which Haydar and Bridget’s characters are based.
An illuminating look at the value of the arts in public life and the preservation of culture—and families.Pub Date: Feb. 24, 2026
ISBN: 9798889661658
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Europa Editions
Review Posted Online: Nov. 22, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2026
BOOK REVIEW
PERSPECTIVES
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
Great crime fiction.
An apparent suicide threatens to destroy an Irish farm town in the final volume of French’s Cal Hooper trilogy.
In the fictional western Ireland townland of Ardnakelty, “there’s a girl going after missing.” Soon young Rachel Holohan is found dead in the river. Shortly before, she had stopped at Lena Dunne’s home, and nothing had seemed amiss. The medical examiner determines she’d swallowed antifreeze, and he presumes she then fell from a bridge into the water. The medical examiner and the town agree she’d died by suicide. But there is far more to the plot: 16-year-old Trey Reddy thinks Tommy Moynihan murdered Rachel. Moynihan doles out favors and punishments to the local townsfolk, who know it’s best not to cross him. Now rumors spread that Moynihan wants land and has a secret plan to forcibly buy up parcels from the locals. A factory will be built, or a great big data center, or who knows what. If Tommy’s son, Eugene, can get elected to the local council, then compulsory purchase orders for land will follow, and the farms will disappear. Eugene, who’d been romantically involved with Rachel, is wonderfully described as “on the weedy edge of good-looking” and just fine as long as you “don’t have high expectations in the way of chins.” Lena is engaged to the American Cal Hooper, an ex-cop turned woodworker. They are “more or less raising” Trey, and these three core characters are drawn into the mystery of Rachel’s death and may have to face the looming clouds of civilizational change for Ardnakelty. Lena is chastised for “asking your wee questions all round the townland,” and Trey wants to quit school, against Cal’s advice. Finally, the story’s best line: “You can’t go killing people just because they deserve it.”
Great crime fiction.Pub Date: March 31, 2026
ISBN: 9780593493465
Page Count: 496
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: Dec. 26, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2026
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