Action, loyalty, bravery, and blood make for fine historical fiction, and it’s all here.
A warrior and an unlikely cohort face the might of the Roman Empire in this vivid tale of tribulation.
In Anno Domini 55, a 14-year-old Jewish boy named David witnesses a group of brigands launch a failed ambush upon a wagon train. They are scant match against the mercenary Telamon of Arcadia, who bears a tattoo of his former Roman Tenth Legion. After rescuing the wagon train from the bandits, the fearsome warrior assists a mute and “feral girl-child” named Ruth and her caretaker, Michael. Star-struck, David declares himself Telamon’s apprentice. Meanwhile, the Romans are chasing Michael, whom they consider "the most dangerous man in Palestine." They fear that he's carrying a lengthy and seditious letter written by Paul the Apostle or that he knows where it is. Said letter is destined for delivery to the Christian underground in Corinth, Greece. Meanwhile, Marcus Severus Pertinax, the Roman commander in Jerusalem, knows Telamon well and directs him to find the messianic “Jewish subversive calling himself Paul the Apostle,” a man who “cannot be suborned, coerced or reasoned with.” And Severus urgently wants Paul’s letter. Although Telamon claims to believe in nothing but money, he travels across the desert with Michael, Ruth, and David, who don’t have two coins to rub together. And Michael and Ruth won’t say if the letter even exists. They endure unrelenting trouble: bloody skirmishes, parching thirst, terrible torments, threatened crucifixion, and a treacherous witch (is there any other kind?) who wants to rip Michael’s guts out to look for the missive. Throughout their arduous journey are hundreds of colorful details, such as the balloon trousers of the Sadducees and the underground city called The Anthill. The writing style feels at times like that of an old storyteller of the day: “David could not see the lead sling bullet, so swiftly did it fly.” Though the foursome do not share a common faith, they show each other unflagging fealty.
Action, loyalty, bravery, and blood make for fine historical fiction, and it’s all here.Pub Date: March 2, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-393-54097-0
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Norton
Review Posted Online: Jan. 26, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2021
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
A debut novel with bright spots, but unbalanced and lacking in finesse.
A high school senior pursues an affair with her teacher.
Seventeen-year-old Waldo, the narrator of McCurdy’s fiction debut, lives in Anchorage, Alaska, with her mother, though she’s long been the parent in their relationship. She heats her own frozen meals and pays the bills on time while her mom chases man after man and makes well-meaning promises she never keeps. Waldo blows her Victoria’s Secret wages on online shopping sprees and binges on junk food, inevitably crashing after the fleeting highs of her indulgences. Mr. Korgy, her creative writing teacher, has “thinning hair and nose pores”; he’s 40 years old and married with a child. Nevertheless—or possibly as a result?—Waldo’s attraction to him is “instant. So sudden it’s alarming. So palpable it’s confusing.” Mr. Korgy professes to want to keep their friendship aboveboard, but after a sexual encounter at the school’s winter formal that she initiates, an affair begins. Will this reckless pursuit be the one that actually satisfies Waldo, and is she as mature as she thinks she is? Waldo is a keen observer of people and provides sharp commentary on the punishing work of female beauty. Readers of McCurdy’s bestselling memoir, I’m Glad My Mom Died (2022), will surely be curious about the tumultuous mother-daughter relationship, and it is one of the novel’s highlights, full of realistic pity and anger and need. (“I want to scream at her. I want her to hug me.”) Unfortunately, the prose is often unwieldy and sometimes downright cringeworthy: When Waldo tells Mr. Korgy she loves him, “The words hang in the air in that constipated way they do when you know that you shouldn’t have said them.” Waldo frequently lists emotions and adjectives in triplicate, and events that could be significant aren’t sufficiently explored or given enough space to breathe before the novel races on to the next thing.
A debut novel with bright spots, but unbalanced and lacking in finesse.Pub Date: Jan. 20, 2026
ISBN: 9780593723739
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: Nov. 22, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2026
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
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