A tender, surprising excavation of minds meeting and hearts singing through disappointments to very human deaths.
Based on the true story of the author’s grandparents, this intimate look at the marriage between a defrocked priest and a theology teacher takes place in 1960s England and 21st-century France.
Vatican II, convened in 1962 as the first such gathering in nearly 100 years, electrified young Roman Catholics around the world—even in largely Protestant England, where Catholic enclaves in the north still sent young men like David Fletcher to the priesthood. Meanwhile, some young women, like Margaret Bendelow, were selected to study a sort of theology-light in Rome, to fit them for teaching college girls at St. Genevieve’s. Margaret and David meet when he is assigned as her diocesan advisor, and sparks fly quickly, though chastely. Neither intends to start a love affair, but once it happens, it blows the roof off their lives. The story proceeds haltingly yet meaningfully, moving from their grandson Adrian’s discovery of this family secret, back to David’s early exhilaration with his vocation, to Margaret’s scholarly brilliance, on to Adrian caring for her through her difficult old age. Sometimes Margaret is able to share memories; sometimes she is lost to the fog of dementia. Connecting the elderly Margaret to her dynamic 30-something self is particularly difficult, a distancing that feels right given how little material Adrian and his mother, Hilary, have to explain Margaret’s past. It’s enough for the reader to see inside the grandparents’ marriage and its many challenges, which include ostracization, a poor sexual fit, and Hilary’s too-quick arrival; David and Margaret scarcely have time to unwrap wedding gifts before she’s pregnant. Sy-Quia wisely avoids tying up all loose ends, creating a portrait rather than a complicated plot. Although it’s clear from early on that David makes an important late request, without the rest of this restrained narrative, the significance of that request would mean very little. Instead, it explains everything.
A tender, surprising excavation of minds meeting and hearts singing through disappointments to very human deaths.Pub Date: April 14, 2026
ISBN: 9780802166906
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Grove
Review Posted Online: Feb. 2, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2026
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
The best-selling author of tearjerkers like Angel Falls (2000) serves up yet another mountain of mush, topped off with...
Talk-show queen takes tumble as millions jeer.
Nora Bridges is a wildly popular radio spokesperson for family-first virtues, but her loyal listeners don't know that she walked out on her husband and teenaged daughters years ago and didn't look back. Now that a former lover has sold racy pix of naked Nora and horny himself to a national tabloid, her estranged daughter Ruby, an unsuccessful stand-up comic in Los Angeles, has been approached to pen a tell-all. Greedy for the fat fee she's been promised, Ruby agrees and heads for the San Juan Islands, eager to get reacquainted with the mom she plans to betray. Once in the family homestead, nasty Ruby alternately sulks and glares at her mother, who is temporarily wheelchair-bound as a result of a post-scandal car crash. Uncaring, Ruby begins writing her side of the story when she's not strolling on the beach with former sweetheart Dean Sloan, the son of wealthy socialites who basically ignored him and his gay brother Eric. Eric, now dying of cancer and also in a wheelchair, has returned to the island. This dismal threesome catch up on old times, recalling their childhood idylls on the island. After Ruby's perfect big sister Caroline shows up, there's another round of heartfelt talk. Nora gradually reveals the truth about her unloving husband and her late father's alcoholism, which led her to seek the approval of others at the cost of her own peace of mind. And so on. Ruby is aghast to discover that she doesn't know everything after all, but Dean offers her subdued comfort. Happy endings await almost everyone—except for readers of this nobly preachy snifflefest.
The best-selling author of tearjerkers like Angel Falls (2000) serves up yet another mountain of mush, topped off with syrupy platitudes about life and love.Pub Date: March 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-609-60737-5
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2001
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