An imaginative tale of penitence, bravery, and blood.
A man who has lived many lives appears in tumultuous 16th-century Spain.
During the reign of King Ferdinand of Aragon, an itinerant iron man—a sharpener of tools—arrives at the girl Mariah’s farm. He is Telamon, of the Greek province of Arcadia, and he has an X tattooed on his arm. But Mariah senses much more in the man. “You pretend to be a simple tinker, but you carry secrets,” she tells him, believing he carries devils. She is right. In fact, he is a penitente who had been a Roman soldier and a grievous sinner in previous lives and is condemned to continue living miserable lives forever. The only thing that can release him and let him finally die once and for all is a curious, improbable set of conditions set, apparently, by the Almighty. One reader might exclaim that the Lord works in mysterious ways while others might just see a contrived plot device. Either way, it serves well to deliver a dramatic finale. Early in the story, Mariah’s farm is pillaged by marauding Portuguese invaders led by Severiano—the Severe One—whose primary task is to find and confiscate hundreds of tons of black powder. For his own reasons, he also wants the iron man, his horse, and Mariah. Speaking of equines, Telamon’s horse is a noble, unnamed animal, and the two have a deep emotional connection. Severiano’s magnificent steed is named La Mano Derecha de Dios, or The Right Hand of God, and both animals figure significantly in the story. Meanwhile, Telamon is an army deserter and vows to “never again harm another human being. I will never bear arms again in war.” Instead, he commits himself to protecting Mariah and his horse, also branded with an X. Mariah has hallucinations that open up Telamon’s past as a Roman legionnaire centuries before. The tale’s dramatic set piece is the siege of a citadel, portrayed in wrenching detail. The literary style is replete with rhetorical flourishes such as “A cry of joy sprang from twice a hundred townsmen’s throats.”
An imaginative tale of penitence, bravery, and blood.Pub Date: May 26, 2026
ISBN: 9781324124252
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Norton
Review Posted Online: Feb. 16, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 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
An existential crisis that steps on its own final moments.
With only a month left until the world ends due to a swiftly approaching black hole, Don and Rodney, a retired gay couple, road-trip from Maine to Washington to spend their final days with their son.
After reports that a planet-swallowing black hole is making its way toward Earth, Rodney and Don—who have been together for 40 years and survived everything from homophobia to the HIV crisis—decide to pack their belongings into an RV, say goodbye to their neighbors, and travel from Camden, Maine, to Washington to uphold a promise to spend their final days with their son. They can’t wait any longer, since there’s already chaos around the country: “Military vehicles in the streets of most cities and towns. Looting, rioting, the burning of cars and buildings and people, all of it had already happened.” As they make their way west across the country, they encounter fellow travelers ranging from close-knit families to free-spirited hippies, some of whom have come to terms with the impending end of the world and others who haven’t. While the story seems to be asking readers what they would do if they had 30 days left to live, and reflects on what different kinds of acceptance might look like in the face of unavoidable tragedy, it loses some of its poignancy in a series of thinly padded monologues about the meaning of life. Clearly intended to pack an emotional punch, it’s failed by an abrupt ending, and the way the journey’s mystery—which will be obvious to many readers—is revealed by an info dump in the last chapter.
An existential crisis that steps on its own final moments.Pub Date: April 28, 2026
ISBN: 9781250881236
Page Count: 176
Publisher: Tor
Review Posted Online: March 9, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2026
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