A devastating family drama driven by engrossing and believable characters.
A young mother returns home in the face of a crisis and uncovers her family’s troubled past in this debut novel.
Nocher’s book begins with 5-year-old Tasha asking her mother, Lacey Cherrymill, where her grandmother is. Lacey can only respond, “I just don’t know.” In fact, Lacey’s mother, May, abandoned her, leaving her with her stepfather, a kindhearted farmer named Willy. Although Willy raised Lacey as his own child, he still feels “gullies” between them. After a long time away, Lacey visits Willy’s Maryland farm and seems to want to escape her stressful job, but soon the first of many truths is revealed: Tasha has leukemia and a long road of treatments nearby is about to begin. Willy’s farm soon becomes the base for disjointed family members striving to support one another, including Lacey’s ex-boyfriend Mac—Tasha’s father—and his daughter from a former marriage. Even as they all grow closer and Lacey and Willy find surprising promise for new relationships, the specter of May and the question of why she left them to fend for themselves persist. Nocher alternates between the present day and May’s own journal entries dating from the 1970s, which slowly reveal the turbulent and shocking circumstances that brought Willy and Lacey together. Between the disturbing secrets hidden in May’s journal and Tasha’s heartbreaking medical ordeals—such as the child asking Lacey if they can glue her hair back on later—the author does not pull any tragic punches. But readers ready to shed more than a few tears will find a wealth of complex characters. Willy and Lacey have a relationship that feels both unlikely and entirely real, while May’s journal entries, written in the voice of a lost teenage mother, are as authentic as they are haunting.
A devastating family drama driven by engrossing and believable characters.Pub Date: June 22, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-09-409521-9
Page Count: 483
Publisher: Blackstone
Review Posted Online: July 14, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2021
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
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
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