A masterful blend of genres from a shining light of Mexican literature.
An author in search of a history that’s been all but erased.
Rivera Garza’s latest book to be translated into English begins with an exhausted man on horseback racing to the “transit point” of Estación Camarón in northern Mexico. His name is José Revueltas, and the Mexican Communist Party has sent him to the settlement, near the country’s Irrigation System No. 4, where the community’s cotton workers have gone on strike. Revueltas, an author and activist, really existed, and he wrote about the strike in his novel Human Mourning (1943). There’s also a real-life couple in Rivera Garza’s novel: Estación Camarón laborers José María Rivera Doñez and Petra Peña Martinez, whose son, Antonio Rivera Peña, is Rivera Garza’s father. The author’s grandparents and Revueltas were both at Irrigation System No. 4 around the same time, but Rivera Garza doesn’t know if they ever met, which is in large part because the history of the region—and the town itself—have been erased: “We can’t go to Estación Camarón because Estación Camarón doesn’t exist,” Rivera Garza writes, “but we go there anyhow.” This book functions as an account of that journey, in which she tries to discover the real stories of her ancestors, which results in frequent frustration: “I have never felt the passage of time to be a punishment as strongly as in the towns cotton has passed through, with its trail of protests against the exploitation and inequality resulting from its cultivation.” This remarkable book is billed as a novel but resists classification; it blends biography, history, literary and ecological criticism, and, crucially, memoir. Rivera Garza beautifully asks vital questions about whose stories get to be preserved: “Belonging is the mechanism we use to make time palpable again,” she writes. “Writing, which convenes the past, summons it, also invites us to be there.” This is undeniably a major accomplishment.
A masterful blend of genres from a shining light of Mexican literature.Pub Date: Feb. 3, 2026
ISBN: 9781644453698
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Graywolf
Review Posted Online: Oct. 25, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
PERSPECTIVES
PERSPECTIVES
PERSPECTIVES
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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