An engaging novel that hooks readers in with a fast-paced story of forbidden love.
In Callahan’s novel, a 39-year-old woman tries to figure out her place in her husband’s family.
In 2018, as the story opens, April Simone and her two children travel from Upstate New York to her father-in-law’s house in Massachusetts on Cape Cod for a family reunion. There, she’s met by her husband, Al, a sportswriter, and an old flame—her brother-in-law, Oliver. She and Oliver have found ways to exist in each other’s presence since she married Al, who is the only family member aware of his wife and his brother’s romantic history: “Aside from holidays, their annual Cape Cod reunions were the only time April laid eyes on Oliver, each vacation a year farther from the man she was with in Ireland.” However, the week that follows brings up old questions about what she really wants and deserves. Al is an alcoholic and philanderer who, despite his flaws, truly loves April. Oliver is an accomplished musician who appears, at first, to be in a happy marriage. The story jumps back and forth in time to tell tales of a troubled youth, the aforementioned trip to Ireland, a love letter, and April and Al’s convenient wedding. For April, being with Oliver would mean breaking up a family that includes her beloved adopted niece, Phoebe. However, staying with Al means humiliation. Meanwhile, her adolescent children are also finding out more about themselves as they come of age in a family whose sense of peace is rocky at best. Many passages in Callahan’s novel read as if they were first written as a play, as the narrative drifts from room to room in the single Cape Cod house with a strong emphasis on dialogue; as a result, although the book is on the lengthy side, it proceeds at a fairly quick pace. The story falls into tropes of family-centered dramas that many readers will find familiar, but its treatment of issues such as infidelity has enough nuance to catch and keep the reader’s attention until the end. Overall, the novel’s straightforwardly dramatic aspects, and its clear sense of forward momentum, give it the feel of a diverting beach or vacation read.
An engaging novel that hooks readers in with a fast-paced story of forbidden love.Pub Date: Sept. 3, 2024
ISBN: 9781662517570
Page Count: 331
Publisher: Little A
Review Posted Online: Feb. 17, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2025
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
SEEN & HEARD
A pleasant if not entirely convincing tribute to the power of art.
A French art historian’s English-language fiction debut combines the story of a loving relationship between a grandfather and granddaughter with an enlightening discussion of art.
One day, when 10-year-old Mona removes the necklace given to her by her now-dead grandmother, she experiences a frightening, hour-long bout of blindness. Her parents take her to the doctor, who gives her a variety of tests and also advises that she see a psychiatrist. Her grandfather Henry tells her parents that he will take care of that assignment, but instead, he takes Mona on weekly visits to either the Louvre, the Musée d’Orsay, or the Centre Pompidou, where each week they study a single work of art, gazing at it deeply and then discussing its impact and history and the biography of its maker. For the reader’s benefit, Schlesser also describes each of the works in scrupulous detail. As the year goes on, Mona faces the usual challenges of elementary school life and the experiences of being an only child, and slowly begins to understand the causes of her temporary blindness. Primarily an amble through a few dozen of Schlesser’s favorite works of art—some well known and others less so, from Botticelli and da Vinci through Basquiat and Bourgeois—the novel would probably benefit from being read at a leisurely pace. While the dialogue between Henry and the preternaturally patient and precocious Mona sometimes strains credulity, readers who don’t have easy access to the museums of Paris may enjoy this vicarious trip in the company of a guide who focuses equally on that which can be seen and the context that can’t be. Come for the novel, stay for the introductory art history course.
A pleasant if not entirely convincing tribute to the power of art.Pub Date: Aug. 26, 2025
ISBN: 9798889661115
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Europa Editions
Review Posted Online: June 7, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2025
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
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