Proof that thoughtful novels of ideas can be fun as well as provocative.
Tawada’s band of multinational, multiethnic, and multitalented pilgrims continues (and perhaps concludes) its journey to discover what happened to the homeland of one of its number in the third volume of a whimsical trilogy, following Scattered All Over the Earth (2022) and Suggested in the Stars (2024).
Still in search of Hiruko’s ostensibly obliterated homeland of Japan, the travelers start their journey on a surreal decommissioned mailboat in the Baltic Sea. Intriguingly, several of their fellow shipmates could be the ghosts of literary figures. Traveling from port to port, the group comes face to face with shifting borders and national identities, many of which have changed over time due to military and political developments. Observations about the impermanent nature of the concept of “country,” made of paper and promises, versus the permanence of “towns,” which endure beyond the shifting of borders, lead to a discussion of what happens when a house is destroyed. Tawada’s frequently explored themes of identity and belonging, transitions, and the barriers and bridges built by language are on display here, along with commentary on current immigration issues. This ultimately leads Hiruko—who may never determine what has become of her birth county—to a very personal, and literal, solution to where her “house” will be. As Hiruko, and the others she refers to as a “private UN,” come to the realization that the route they are on is unlikely to get her any closer to her homeland, decisions must be made about who is going ahead and with whom. The tale’s ending leaves room for conjecture about the question of destination, but not the bonds created within the group of wanderers. Tawada’s usual spirit of cheerful speculation creates a believable, but impossible, set of circumstances for her appealing characters to muse upon, argue over, and learn from.
Proof that thoughtful novels of ideas can be fun as well as provocative.Pub Date: Sept. 2, 2025
ISBN: 9780811239790
Page Count: 256
Publisher: New Directions
Review Posted Online: July 4, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Fans of Stockett’s bestselling debut will love this engaging follow-up.
Stockett heads to Mississippi for another historical novel about feisty women.
This time, perhaps recalling criticisms of cultural appropriation in The Help (2009), she sticks to feisty white women, with one exception. The setting is Oxford in 1933. For two miserable years, 11-year-old Meg has lived in “the Orphan,” a county asylum for parentless girls. Chairlady Garnett—a villain so one-note she’d twirl a mustache if she had one—makes it her mission to ostracize the older girls she deems unadoptable, stigmatizing them as offspring of the “feebleminded” mothers who abandoned them. She particularly has it in for smart, sassy Meg, who refuses to believe her mother’s mysterious disappearance was deliberate. Elsewhere in Oxford, Birdie Calhoun comes to visit her sister Frances, who married a wealthy banker, to ask for money on behalf of their mother and grandmother back in Footely. Frances isn’t thrilled by this reminder of her impoverished small-town origins. But she’s trying to climb up in Oxford society by volunteering at the Orphan, the asylum’s books need to be done before the state inspector shows up in a few weeks, and Birdie is a bookkeeper. Having neatly arranged to keep Birdie in town and draw these two storylines together, Stockett goes on to spin a compulsively readable yarn with enough plot for a half-dozen novels. Birdie and Meg become friends, Meg is adopted despite Garnett’s best efforts, Meg’s mother turns up at the Orphan demanding to know where her child is—and that’s less than a quarter of the way through a long, winding narrative that keeps piling on more dramatic developments until all loose ends are neatly, if hastily, wrapped up in the final pages. Stockett might be making a point about Southern women facing facts and standing up for themselves, but mostly this is just a satisfyingly twisty tale that should make a great miniseries.
Fans of Stockett’s bestselling debut will love this engaging follow-up.Pub Date: May 5, 2026
ISBN: 9781954118812
Page Count: 656
Publisher: Spiegel & Grau
Review Posted Online: Feb. 2, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2026
BOOK REVIEW
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
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