An insightful look at a forgotten conflict.
Two women are caught up in the Russian-Chechen clash of the 1990s and 2000s.
This debut novel, based on historical events, is the story of two women: Alla, half-Chechen and half-Russian, and Nadezhda, a Moscow native. They become close friends as children, drift apart, reconnect as adults, and end up on opposite sides when Chechen rebels take hostages in a Russian theater in 2002. Alla receives a letter from Nadezhda shortly before her father, husband, and son are killed in a Russian airstrike, and she decides to move to Moscow and live with her old friend. Before she leaves Chechnya, Alla trains as a guerrilla fighter and commits to working with the rebels in the future. In Moscow, Nadezhda enjoys her job at an international school, but even though she was fired by the FSB after getting involved with an Englishman, her former spymasters stay in touch and continue to press her for information on her foreign friends and Alla. Over the course of several years, the two women make the most of life in an evolving Russia, with Alla working to support Chechen refugees in Moscow and Nadezhda developing a relationship with a Canadian American academic, an “unassuming but attractive foreigner.” Nadezhda and her boyfriend are enjoying an evening at the theater when Alla’s group takes the entire audience hostage, and the dramatic events bring major changes to both their lives. Goodings has clearly done substantial research, both on the Chechen conflict and on the atmosphere of Russia during the time period. The book brings its setting to life with vivid descriptions, and cameo appearances by Vladimir Putin and Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya add authenticity. Although the narrative’s pace can be a bit slow at times, the author does a solid job of balancing the many threads of a complex plot and illuminating the motivations of all the characters, showing how war affects even those who try not to participate in it. With its focus on a little-discussed area of recent history, the story is likely to appeal to historical fiction fans looking for something other than a World War II novel.
An insightful look at a forgotten conflict.Pub Date: Oct. 11, 2022
ISBN: 978-1039153936
Page Count: 228
Publisher: FriesenPress
Review Posted Online: Dec. 12, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2023
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Briskly written soap with down-to-earth types, mostly without the lachrymose contrivances of Hannah’s previous titles...
Sisters in and out of love.
Meghann Dontess is a high-powered matrimonial lawyer in Seattle who prefers sex with strangers to emotional intimacy: a strategy bound to backfire sooner or later, warns her tough-talking shrink. It’s advice Meghann decides to ignore, along with the memories of her difficult childhood, neglectful mother, and younger sister. Though she managed to reunite Claire with Sam Cavenaugh (her father but not Meghann’s) when her mother abandoned both girls long ago, Meghann still feels guilty that her sister’s life doesn’t measure up, at least on her terms. Never married, Claire ekes out a living running a country campground with her dad and is raising her six-year-old daughter on her own. When she falls in love for the first time with an up-and-coming country musician, Meghann is appalled: Bobby Austin is a three-time loser at marriage—how on earth can Claire be so blind? Bobby’s blunt explanation doesn’t exactly satisfy the concerned big sister, who busies herself planning Claire’s dream wedding anyway. And, to relieve the stress, she beds various guys she picks up in bars, including Dr. Joe Wyatt, a neurosurgeon turned homeless drifter after the demise of his beloved wife Diane (whom he euthanized). When Claire’s awful headache turns out to be a kind of brain tumor known among neurologists as a “terminator,” Joe rallies. Turns out that Claire had befriended his wife on her deathbed, and now in turn he must try to save her. Is it too late? Will Meghann find true love at last?
Briskly written soap with down-to-earth types, mostly without the lachrymose contrivances of Hannah’s previous titles (Distant Shores, 2002, etc.). Kudos for skipping the snifflefest this time around.Pub Date: May 1, 2003
ISBN: 0-345-45073-6
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2003
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
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