Warnings are wrapped up inside of portents in turning today’s headlines into literature.
Two inimical societies seek to escape the ravages of climate change in this imaginative novel.
Extend the post-apocalyptic sections of David Mitchell’s Cloud Atlas and you’re in the territory of Larison’s tale. Set in unspecified locations—though one imagines Alaska at one end and southern California at the other—it begins with children of a hunting clan who have been abandoned. That’s not through any neglect on the part of their elders, but because they’ve been shanghaied into slavery. The children set out to find their people, braving tall mountains, fierce critters, and snow that Larison writes, poetically, “looked like knapped flint falling through water.” Explains another to the youngest, a brave but hapless brother, “Nothing wrong in this world is ever the fault of children.” Far away, their captive mother thinks much the same thing: “Children shouldn’t be blamed.” Nonetheless, children grow up to be strange beings. One is a scholar named Cyrus, a student of history and confidant of the emperor manqué of the slaveholders, who manages a network of spies and snitches that the Stasi might envy: “In this village, there were so many eyes.” Indeed, though, when that young brother finds his unlikely way into the city, no one but the higher-ups pay him much mind. Perhaps that’s because everyone’s preoccupied with a deadly drought, with all the hunger and want it brings. The ruling class has an out—an ark whose bearings are set on a rumored green land far away, “a land of lakes and grass, fruit trees and nuts, grapes and endless harvests, a land that knew no drought and no winter.” Will they get there? The ending is a touch melodramatic, and even predictable, but Larison does a good job of worldbuilding overall, with believable characters and (mostly) believable plot twists.
Warnings are wrapped up inside of portents in turning today’s headlines into literature.Pub Date: Oct. 15, 2024
ISBN: 9780593831168
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: Aug. 17, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
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
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
SEEN & HEARD
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