An impressive work of historical fiction that satisfyingly educates, illuminates, and entertains.
In this novel, a close-knit Irish family deals with a blend of personal struggles and politics.
Set in the Irish coastal seaport of Mullaghmore, Sligo, in the late 1970s, Shaw’s engrossing tale follows Terence Connolly; his wife, Bridget; and their teenage son, Tim, who collectively operate a multigenerational, rustic sheep farm. Terence has “mastered all the essential skills of the Sligo farmer: building trampcocks, slicing turf, raising sheep and cattle, sea gathering, weaving fish nets, and fishing.” As father and son work the fields in the shadow of nearby Classiebawn castle, a tragic event shatters the peace and tranquility of the community. A fishing boat owned by the castle’s occupant, Lord Earl Mountbatten, Queen Victoria’s great-grandson, is suddenly blown apart, killing the royal dignitary and several of his relatives, including his young grandson. The culprits reveal themselves as members of the Irish Republican Army who had murdered 18 British soldiers just hours before in opposition to encroaching British rule. Years later, as Terence travels with his aged father, Brian, a decorated war veteran, they become the target of British soldiers who question their allegiances, and they end up jailed and abused in Maze Prison in 1982. Tim is soon sent to America to stay with his aunt Mary in New York City, and it is there where his true coming-of-age begins. Though his new classmates at school are vicious and hostile, Tim overcomes that by distinguishing himself on the track team and outrunning all of his competitors. He also finds true love with aspiring athlete Gina Carbone. Based on historical events, Shaw’s novel presents an absorbing and unique narrative that explores familial struggles against a backdrop of violent political unrest. The author’s prose is delicate and descriptive, and the story is leisurely paced and appealingly atmospheric, with sharply drawn characters readers will remember. At one point, an emboldened Bridget tries to intervene on behalf of her husband’s incarceration with the help of her friend Maeve Grogan—a fearless liberator and feminist—despite a hunger strike by Terence and a revenge ambush on the Mullaghmore farm.
An impressive work of historical fiction that satisfyingly educates, illuminates, and entertains.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: 283
Publisher: Manuscript
Review Posted Online: Aug. 31, 2022
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A beautiful meditation on queer identity against a supernatural backdrop.
Three women deal very differently with vampirism in Schwab’s era-spanning follow-up to The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue (2020).
In 16th-century Spain, Maria seduces a wealthy viscount in an attempt to seize whatever control she can over her own life. It turns out that being a wife—even a wealthy one—is just another cage, but then a mysterious widow offers Maria a surprising escape route. In the 19th century, Charlotte is sent from her home in the English countryside to live with an aunt in London when she’s found trying to kiss her best friend. She’s despondent at the idea of marrying a man, but another mysterious widow—who has a secret connection to Maria’s widow from centuries earlier—appears and teaches Charlotte that she can be free to love whomever she chooses, if she’s brave enough. In 2019, Alice’s memories of growing up in Scotland with her mercurial older sister, Catty, pull her mind away from her first days at Harvard University. And though she doesn’t meet any mysterious widows, Alice wakes up alone after a one-night stand unable to tolerate sunlight, sporting two new fangs, and desperate to drink blood. Horrified at her transformation, she searches Boston for her hookup, who was the last person she remembers seeing before she woke up as a vampire. Schwab delicately intertwines the three storylines, which are compelling individually even before the reader knows how they will connect. Maria, Charlotte, and Alice are queer women searching for love, recognition, and wholeness, growing fangs and defying mortality in a world that would deny them their very existence. Alice’s flashbacks to Catty are particularly moving, and subtly play off themes of grief and loneliness laid out in the historical timelines.
A beautiful meditation on queer identity against a supernatural backdrop.Pub Date: June 10, 2025
ISBN: 9781250320520
Page Count: 544
Publisher: Tor
Review Posted Online: March 22, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2025
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BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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PERSPECTIVES
Uneven but fitfully amusing.
Betrayed by her husband, a severely depressed young woman gets drawn into the over-the-top festivities at a lavish wedding.
Phoebe Stone, who teaches English literature at a St. Louis college, is plotting her own demise. Her husband, Matt, has left her for another woman, and Phoebe is taking it hard. Indeed, she's determined just where and how she will end it all: at an oceanfront hotel in Newport, where she will lie on a king-sized canopy bed and take a bottle of her cat’s painkillers. At the hotel, Phoebe meets bride-to-be Lila, a headstrong rich girl presiding over her own extravagant six-day wedding celebration. Lila thought she had booked every room in the hotel, and learning of Phoebe's suicidal intentions, she forbids this stray guest from disrupting the nuptials: “No. You definitely can’t kill yourself. This is my wedding week.” After the punchy opening, a grim flashback to the meltdown of Phoebe's marriage temporarily darkens the mood, but things pick up when spoiled Lila interrupts Phoebe's preparations and sweeps her up in the wedding juggernaut. The slide from earnest drama to broad farce is somewhat jarring, but from this point on, Espach crafts an enjoyable—if overstuffed—comedy of manners. When the original maid of honor drops out, Phoebe is persuaded, against her better judgment, to take her place. There’s some fun to be had here: The wedding party—including groom-to-be Gary, a widower, and his 11-year-old daughter—takes surfing lessons; the women in the group have a session with a Sex Woman. But it all goes on too long, and the humor can seem forced, reaching a low point when someone has sex with the vintage wedding car (you don’t want to know the details). Later, when two characters have a meet-cute in a hot tub, readers will guess exactly how the marriage plot resolves.
Uneven but fitfully amusing.Pub Date: July 30, 2024
ISBN: 9781250899576
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Henry Holt
Review Posted Online: Sept. 13, 2024
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