A gripping rendition of a tragic era buoyed by a powerful protagonist.
In Reppert’s historical thriller, a young Lithuanian woman witnesses the murder of her entire family by the Nazis.
Rivka Resnik is 14 years old when the Russians take over the small (fictional) town of Nashok, Lithuania, in 1941. They’re enacting new rules and confiscating land and possessions for the Communist state, and Rivka is unsettled by their presence, but her family, like other Jewish people in Nashok, is accustomed to changes in political power. As her mother explains, “Before these Russians, we had the Lithuanians. Before them we had the communists…then before them we had the Poles, and before them the Germans from the war. Always somebody wants to tell us what to do.” Because Rivka’s father is a doctor, the family still retains certain privileges, but things change when the Germans take over the town in June of the same year. Nazi SS officer Max Bauer has received special orders from Hitler’s high command that the town’s Jews must be exterminated. By the time the family finally realizes that they need to leave, it’s too late. In a graphic, heart-wrenching scene, the Jewish people in town are sorted into groups, forced to strip off their clothes, lined up in front of a ditch, and mowed down by machine-gun fire. Everyone dies except Rivka; her mother tearfully whispers her final words in her ear before pushing her daughter into the body-loaded ditch: “Live, Rivka. Live for all of us.” Over the course of this book, Reppert vividly re-creates the unspeakable atrocities of the Holocaust in Rivka’s story of survival, most of which the character narrates herself. Before readers’ eyes, this tender heroine transforms into a fierce angel of death, working with the underground and meticulously exacting revenge. But the narrative also focuses on the unique anguish of survivors starting over in a new world—in Rivka’s case, in New York City. Although the story is fictional, Reppert has clearly done his research, and there’s enough historical detail here to engage readers as they read of one chilling experience after another, often at a breathless pace.
A gripping rendition of a tragic era buoyed by a powerful protagonist.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: 426
Publisher: Manuscript
Review Posted Online: Nov. 9, 2020
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
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
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
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