Stark depictions of the lives of sex workers meet magical realism.
A commanding voice emerges in nine stories from Argentine writer Sosa Villada.
Travestis, transgender sex workers of South America, are the stars of this striking collection. We follow them as they befriend jazz singers (including Billie Holiday), become stage actresses, find themselves trapped in nunneries, and start their own societies in the jungle. Sosa Villada, a transgender writer and actress, is an expert at the brutal, striking line: “She’d feel guilty, only she’s a travesti. She works on the road; guilt isn’t for creatures like her. Her lot is to stretch out in the sun, cover herself in Hinds cream and Impulse deodorant, and make her uncle sick with desire.” Sosa Villada’s confident voice threads through her characters as they fight to survive—from Billie Holiday refusing to return her mink coat to her ex-husband, to a travesti pawning a stolen watch to afford ingredients for scones, to a grandmother teaching her granddaughter to be proud of her skin (and how to aim a rifle). The stories interrogate what relationships demand of women, from “The Beard,” which follows a girlfriend-for-hire for wealthy gay men, to “Don’t Spend Too Long in the Dust,” which shows the fallout of an abusive marriage, including the children left behind. Many of the stories have a magical realist bent, particularly the vivid final one, “Six Breasts,” in which travestis, exiled from society and living in a magical jungle, can lay eggs and have headless lovers. Quite a few of the stories in this hard-hitting collection follow characters as they’re beaten down by bad johns, money troubles, and supernatural wild dogs, but this last story holds some hope: A travesti gives birth. The others are awed: “How were we to know that our bodies, dry, clay vessels with pointless tits, were capable of creating life?”
Stark depictions of the lives of sex workers meet magical realism.Pub Date: May 28, 2024
ISBN: 9781635423853
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Other Press
Review Posted Online: April 5, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2024
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
An existential crisis that steps on its own final moments.
With only a month left until the world ends due to a swiftly approaching black hole, Don and Rodney, a retired gay couple, road-trip from Maine to Washington to spend their final days with their son.
After reports that a planet-swallowing black hole is making its way toward Earth, Rodney and Don—who have been together for 40 years and survived everything from homophobia to the HIV crisis—decide to pack their belongings into an RV, say goodbye to their neighbors, and travel from Camden, Maine, to Washington to uphold a promise to spend their final days with their son. They can’t wait any longer, since there’s already chaos around the country: “Military vehicles in the streets of most cities and towns. Looting, rioting, the burning of cars and buildings and people, all of it had already happened.” As they make their way west across the country, they encounter fellow travelers ranging from close-knit families to free-spirited hippies, some of whom have come to terms with the impending end of the world and others who haven’t. While the story seems to be asking readers what they would do if they had 30 days left to live, and reflects on what different kinds of acceptance might look like in the face of unavoidable tragedy, it loses some of its poignancy in a series of thinly padded monologues about the meaning of life. Clearly intended to pack an emotional punch, it’s failed by an abrupt ending, and the way the journey’s mystery—which will be obvious to many readers—is revealed by an info dump in the last chapter.
An existential crisis that steps on its own final moments.Pub Date: April 28, 2026
ISBN: 9781250881236
Page Count: 176
Publisher: Tor
Review Posted Online: March 9, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2026
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