At times as arid as its desert setting, this rural family drama draws readers into an unfamiliar world.
Xuemo explores delicate family dynamics and responsibilities in this novel set against the harsh landscape of China’s deserts.
In the 1990s, Laoshun is the patriarch of a poor but close-knit family in the Tengger Desert of China. The dynamics of his household are built around daily labor; he chastises his grown sons for their complaints. (“He knew how to talk to his sons,” the author writes. “If he went easy on them, nothing would happen, like pounding on water.”) Every day, Laoshun, his wife, and their three sons strive to make their living in the harsh desert, cycling through fox hunting, hawk training, grain transport, temple rituals, and various grueling forms of manual labor. In their downtime between tasks, the family members’ different personalities and conflicts begin to come into play. The family’s middle son, Mengzi, lacks a sense of responsibility and direction. He gambles away money, engages in an affair with a married woman, and contributes little to the family’s survival, sneaking in at all hours of the night. Hantou, the eldest son, is married to Ying’er, but rumors abound that he is suffering from some sort of health problem and impotency. After learning that his sister-in-law may still be a virgin, youngest son Lingguan feels his heart skip a beat, as he finds himself helplessly attracted to her. Meanwhile, the family’s only daughter, Lanlan, has been married off to a man named Bai Fu in a neighboring village, but much to Laoshun’s wife’s dismay, Bai Fu has revealed himself to have a terrible gambling problem, and rumors swirl of Lanlan’s disobedience to her in-laws (who punish her cruelly and unjustly on a daily basis). As the rumors about Hantou’s medical issues are confirmed, the rural family and their wider village must confront haunting questions about modernity and tradition as they struggle to survive, leaving them each to question the cost of duty, desire, and escaping one’s fate.
Xuemo’s writing can often feel like the text of a sociological study—detached, cold, and sweeping in scope. “Potatoes with millet and flour slurry is traditional breakfast fare for the people of Liangzhou,” he writes. “It is a common dish they have eaten for thousands of years.” This bird’s-eye view makes for a slow, steady march through the various plotlines, but each of the narrative threads pitting tradition against desire eventually bubbles over with satisfying emotion. The consummation of Lingguan and Ying’er’s passion is simultaneously sexy and tragic (especially as Hantou deteriorates), while Lanlan’s story of abuse at the hands of her in-laws is filled with unforgettable imagery. As her mother tries to gently encourage her to stay out of her mother-in-law’s way, Lanlan describes being accused of stealing after eating a single egg while pregnant; the author’s dry, staccato prose makes a bruising impact relating her plight: “‘I may not be worth much, but surely more than one yuan.’ By then Lanlan was sobbing.” Building toward a somber, ambiguous ending focused on ancient rites, Xuemo crafts an unromantic yet affecting human drama against a somber landscape.
At times as arid as its desert setting, this rural family drama draws readers into an unfamiliar world.Pub Date: Dec. 24, 2024
ISBN: 9798889910114
Page Count: 484
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: July 16, 2025
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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