An anthology full of promise for more and better (and, with luck, happier) stories to come.
The annual PEN award volume delivers another slate of outstanding stories from emerging writers of short fiction.
It being a fraught year already, it makes sense that many of the stories gathered here feature characters who fret about money and bleak futures. Sometimes these worries are nested, one unfolding from another. In Ani Cooney’s “Evangelina Concepcion,” for instance, the first glimpse we have of the teenage narrator comes as she gathers up her mother’s things for a yard sale. She is without visible emotion, following her mother’s mandate: “You will be like steel. You can cry the first few days, but…I expect you to get up and help your father.” Her mother has died in an automobile accident. The family needs money, but there’s more: The accident was the fault of a drunk man driving a BMW, and therefore presumably wealthy, and the news account of the accident highlighted a pedestrian who was also killed, a young woman named Ashley who adored Paris. That the paper didn’t mention the name of the unfortunate Evangelina Concepcion and her love for Los Angeles speaks volumes about the casual cruelties of class and race, cruelties that Cooney deftly brings to the fore. In Willa C. Richards’ meaningfully titled “Failure To Thrive,” a graduate student with a newborn infant confronts a miserable existence that binds mental illness, near servitude to one’s thesis adviser, and being “so poor we had begun to eat only the casseroles Alice’s mother sent over in weekly batches.” In another standout story, by Kristen Sahaana Surya, a Tamil-speaking woman is “sold to a man twelve years her senior…with the promise of cash and a cow.” His abuse yields unexpected revenge of a fiscal nature. Where there are marriages, as in Matthew Jeffrey Vegari’s densely layered “Don’t Go To Strangers,” evoking a blend of the best of Cheever and Carver, they are miserable—not just because of money, but always with the lack of it in play.
An anthology full of promise for more and better (and, with luck, happier) stories to come.Pub Date: Aug. 25, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-64622-022-9
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Catapult
Review Posted Online: June 16, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
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
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
© Copyright 2026 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
