Friedland’s stream-of-consciousness vignettes thrum with poetic and philosophical weight.
Friedland stitches together four distinct stories of women communicating across time and beyond language.
In “Room,” an unnamed narrator finds herself locked inside a white room in Vienna, where she has come to finish a book, and becomes increasingly agitated. “Night,” the longest section by far, brings us another unnamed narrator in a room. This woman—a German writer—suffers from insomnia and spends her hours sifting through her own memories, imaginings, and histories, particularly those of women artists in pre–World War I Berlin. These pursuits swallow her present, which appears as a surreal kaleidoscope reflecting an almost painful sensitivity to the world around her. Her only companions are the “nameless woman” she shares the room with—a bizarre, mutable figure—and a neighbor she watches through the window. “Medusas,” told in the third person, follows a group of women and their children on a beach vacation. The women are glued to news of atrocities on their phones, only roused when their children are badly stung by jellyfish. The book closes with “Burials,” a second-person account of a mother and daughter visiting another family near a forest in central Europe. The mother (“you”) enjoys nature, sleeps deeply, and considers the family’s dog, soon to be put down. Later, she asks her friend to bury her up to her neck in soil so she may “lie down inside of the earth, enter the womb.” The narrator of “Night” notes that the artists she studies all suffered from “war, lovelessness, mania,” and the women Friedland fashions are no different. While its rapid shifts between thoughts and scenes can be jarring, this book succeeds in constructing a “lineage,” a “female history” (and thus an alternative and even reparative history) of women suffering through unprecedented times. In addition, Friedland conveys a profound truth: Awareness of this lineage is a heavy burden. When holding the weight of one’s own memories and the memories of the many that have gone, passed through oral storytelling, archives, and even the internet, how could one possibly rest?
Friedland’s stream-of-consciousness vignettes thrum with poetic and philosophical weight.Pub Date: March 15, 2026
ISBN: 9781573662178
Page Count: 142
Publisher: FC2/Univ. of Alabama
Review Posted Online: Jan. 19, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2026
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
A dark and twisty look at just how far one woman is willing to go to find inspiration.
A struggling writer finds an unexpected muse when a mysterious man shows up at her cabin.
Petra Rose used to pump out a bestselling book every six months, but then the adaptation happened—that is, the disastrous film adaptation of her most famous book. The movie changed the book’s storyline so egregiously that fans couldn’t forgive her, and the ensuing harassment sent Petra into hiding and gave her a serious case of writer’s block. Petra’s one hope is her solo writing retreat at a remote cabin, where she can escape the distractions of real life and focus on her next book, a story about a woman having an affair with a cop. When officer Nathaniel Saint shows up at her cabin door, inspiration comes flooding back. Much like the character from Petra’s book, Saint is married, and he’s willing to be Petra’s muse, helping her get into her characters’ heads. Petra’s book is practically writing itself, but is the game she’s playing a little too dangerous? Does she know when to stop—and, more importantly, is Saint willing to stop? Hoover is no stranger to controversial movie adaptations and internet backlash, but she clarifies in a note to readers that she’s “just a writer writing about a writer” and that no further connections to her own life are contained in these pages—which is a good thing, because the book takes some horrifying twists and turns. Petra finds herself inexplicably attracted to Saint, even as she describes him as “such an asshole,” and her feelings for him veer between love and hate. The novel serves as a meta commentary on the dark romance genre—as Petra puts it, “Even though, as readers, we wouldn’t want to live out some of the fantasies we read about, it doesn’t mean we don’t enjoy reading those things.”
A dark and twisty look at just how far one woman is willing to go to find inspiration.Pub Date: Jan. 13, 2026
ISBN: 9781662539374
Page Count: -
Publisher: Montlake
Review Posted Online: Sept. 27, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2025
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