A memorable voice and compelling (and graphically violent) melding of fact and fiction.
A Mongolian rebel leader enlists real and unseen forces to fight for his ancestral homeland in Augenstein’s historical novel.
This exhaustively researched, bloody, and compelling work of historical fiction, set in late 19th- and early 20th-century Asia and parts of Russia, is narrated in the distinctive voice of Ja Lama, the real-life militant leader and Buddhist monk who fomented years of rebellion against Chinese rule over Mongolia. The author presents readers with a cruel, charismatic figure who intimidates and manipulates followers and opponents alike with the single-minded conviction that his leadership is preordained; with his carefully cultivated mystique, he seems to possess supernatural mental powers (his paranormal aspect is given unsettling credibility, despite an occasional sly wink from Ja Lama suggesting otherwise). Even as an 8-year-old, traveling with his parents out of Russia to their Mongolian homeland, Ja Lama is aware of his destiny as the reincarnation of the legendary 18th century anti-Manchu rebel leader, Amursanaa: “I was to be a great leader, to bring our peoples back to the respect and greatness we once had, when the haughty fell before our arrows, and our cavalry slashed across the whole known world.” On that grueling wagon trip from the banks of the Volga River, Ja Lama experiences his first hallucinatory vision of Agharti, the golden, subterranean kingdom of legend, a vision at odds with his arrival in an impoverished city in Inner Mongolia, but a place he will strive to reach all his life. Set against the upheaval of WWI and the Russian Revolution and supported by historical facts, Ja Lama’s reimagined life is a gripping saga that spans his abuse as a monk in training, his burgeoning mental gifts, an act of extreme violence that shaped him, military failures and successes, stints in Russia as a political prisoner, a years-long hermit’s retreat, torture both borne and inflicted, a final betrayal, and the chilling nemesis who haunts his life (be warned: The book contains numerous graphic descriptions of brutality and bloodshed, based on history and historical rumor).
A memorable voice and compelling (and graphically violent) melding of fact and fiction.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: 9781950627646
Page Count: -
Publisher: Pandamoon Publishing
Review Posted Online: Sept. 26, 2023
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
SEEN & HEARD
A pleasant if not entirely convincing tribute to the power of art.
A French art historian’s English-language fiction debut combines the story of a loving relationship between a grandfather and granddaughter with an enlightening discussion of art.
One day, when 10-year-old Mona removes the necklace given to her by her now-dead grandmother, she experiences a frightening, hour-long bout of blindness. Her parents take her to the doctor, who gives her a variety of tests and also advises that she see a psychiatrist. Her grandfather Henry tells her parents that he will take care of that assignment, but instead, he takes Mona on weekly visits to either the Louvre, the Musée d’Orsay, or the Centre Pompidou, where each week they study a single work of art, gazing at it deeply and then discussing its impact and history and the biography of its maker. For the reader’s benefit, Schlesser also describes each of the works in scrupulous detail. As the year goes on, Mona faces the usual challenges of elementary school life and the experiences of being an only child, and slowly begins to understand the causes of her temporary blindness. Primarily an amble through a few dozen of Schlesser’s favorite works of art—some well known and others less so, from Botticelli and da Vinci through Basquiat and Bourgeois—the novel would probably benefit from being read at a leisurely pace. While the dialogue between Henry and the preternaturally patient and precocious Mona sometimes strains credulity, readers who don’t have easy access to the museums of Paris may enjoy this vicarious trip in the company of a guide who focuses equally on that which can be seen and the context that can’t be. Come for the novel, stay for the introductory art history course.
A pleasant if not entirely convincing tribute to the power of art.Pub Date: Aug. 26, 2025
ISBN: 9798889661115
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Europa Editions
Review Posted Online: June 7, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2025
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
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