A compelling combination of historical sweep and family drama.
Auci chronicles further generations of the legendary Florio family in a follow-up to The Florios of Sicily (2020).
Covering the years between 1868 and 1893, Auci details the continued expansion of the Florios’ wide-ranging empire, which includes holdings in manufacturing, shipping, mining, fishing, and winemaking. Now under the direction of Ignazio—whose devotion to the business overrules almost all other interests—the enterprises contribute to the expansion of Sicily’s importance in the Italian economy and culture. Ignazio’s marriage to a woman of minor nobility enables the family to begin its rise above the class of tradesmen and merchants so maligned by Sicilian nobles, and Auci delivers a dramatic portrait of the heartaches, triumphs, and machinations occurring in the wealthy but striving household. Giovanna, Ignazio’s wife, occupies a place of lesser importance among his interests due to his preoccupation with industry and, perhaps, a past love. Her sometimes-thwarted affection for her spouse, however, does not prevent Giovanna from assuming her place in industrial royalty and providing heirs to ensure continuity for the business. As Auci’s narrative unfolds, events within the household and in the halls of Italian banks and government affect the stability of the family’s position as the “lions” of Sicilian industry. The actions of Ignazio’s namesake and successor, Ignazziddu, lead to a cliffhanger ending hinting at further installments. Gregor once again translates Auci’s colorful work—which is the basis for the Hulu miniseries The Lions of Sicily—this time in collaboration with Curtis. A helpful Florio family tree precedes the text, and Auci launches this volume with a summary of the family’s previous triumphs. In addition, the historical backdrop of each of the novel’s four sections is explained at length in notes at the end.
A compelling combination of historical sweep and family drama.Pub Date: March 12, 2024
ISBN: 9780062931702
Page Count: 384
Publisher: HarperVia
Review Posted Online: Jan. 20, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
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
Still, a respectful and absorbing page-turner.
Hannah’s new novel is an homage to the extraordinary courage and endurance of Frenchwomen during World War II.
In 1995, an elderly unnamed widow is moving into an Oregon nursing home on the urging of her controlling son, Julien, a surgeon. This trajectory is interrupted when she receives an invitation to return to France to attend a ceremony honoring passeurs: people who aided the escape of others during the war. Cut to spring, 1940: Viann has said goodbye to husband Antoine, who's off to hold the Maginot line against invading Germans. She returns to tending her small farm, Le Jardin, in the Loire Valley, teaching at the local school and coping with daughter Sophie’s adolescent rebellion. Soon, that world is upended: The Germans march into Paris and refugees flee south, overrunning Viann’s land. Her long-estranged younger sister, Isabelle, who has been kicked out of multiple convent schools, is sent to Le Jardin by Julien, their father in Paris, a drunken, decidedly unpaternal Great War veteran. As the depredations increase in the occupied zone—food rationing, systematic looting, and the billeting of a German officer, Capt. Beck, at Le Jardin—Isabelle’s outspokenness is a liability. She joins the Resistance, volunteering for dangerous duty: shepherding downed Allied airmen across the Pyrenees to Spain. Code-named the Nightingale, Isabelle will rescue many before she's captured. Meanwhile, Viann’s journey from passive to active resistance is less dramatic but no less wrenching. Hannah vividly demonstrates how the Nazis, through starvation, intimidation and barbarity both casual and calculated, demoralized the French, engineering a community collapse that enabled the deportations and deaths of more than 70,000 Jews. Hannah’s proven storytelling skills are ideally suited to depicting such cataclysmic events, but her tendency to sentimentalize undermines the gravitas of this tale.
Still, a respectful and absorbing page-turner.Pub Date: Feb. 3, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-312-57722-3
Page Count: 448
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: Nov. 19, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2014
BOOK TO SCREEN
SEEN & HEARD
BOOK TO SCREEN
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