A bittersweet slice of life.
Two sisters. One week. A lifetime to understand.
Popular French author Grimaldi’s American debut charts the course of an emotional one-week reunion between two estranged sisters who retreat to their beloved grandmother’s Basque home before it’s sold to new owners. Older sister Emma (who sought out the meeting) and “little sister” Agathe—both now middle-aged—were close during a childhood marked by the death of their father and the increasing violence and drunkenness of their mother. The one constant source of security and affection during their formative years was their warm and caring paternal grandmother, Mima. After a five-year period of distance and alienation, the women fall back into old behaviors but relish the opportunity to be together, and in a place they both love. Telling the story through the women’s alternating voices and spanning the decades of their lives, Grimaldi deftly illustrates the emotional damage visited on them by both their unstable upbringing and the fragile nature of their renewed relationship. Emma, who assumed a caretaking role toward Agathe in the face of their mother’s abuse, has dealt with Agathe’s fragile mental health throughout their lives (until the point where the relationship ruptured). Her motivation for repairing their fractured relationship is slowly and subtly revealed—and is responsible for a classic tear-jerker ending. Agathe’s struggles with mental illness are sensitively handled, and Grimaldi respectfully reveals the stress this placed on Emma as well. The idyllic Basque setting sits in contrast to the sisters’ recalled heartaches but serves as a balm to their sentimental souls as they recall the nurturing affection Mima provided. Translated from French by Serle, Grimaldi’s account of two sisters taking stock of what’s brought them this far is affecting but smile producing as well.
A bittersweet slice of life.Pub Date: May 28, 2024
ISBN: 9798889660248
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Europa Editions
Review Posted Online: March 9, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2024
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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