A moving and well-written saga of an earlier time in America.
Trubiano’s historical novel tells the story of the Italian immigrants who fought for survival and acceptance in Boston’s North End in the first half of the 20th century.
Domenic Bassini is 16 years old when he sets sail for America from his hardscrabble little village to make a better life for himself and perhaps improve the family fortunes. A shy, quiet kid, he nonetheless meets people on the voyage who will remain in his life (for good or ill), including Cologero Dragotto and his beautiful and shrewd young bride, Francesca, who seduces Domenic even before they land in Boston, and the spunky 10-year-old stowaway, Ermino Lentini. Once in Boston, Domenic, a stoic, steady worker, gets a job and keeps his head down. Domenic becomes Ermino’s protector by default, but the kid is a handful and drifts away, finally going full-bore into a successful life of crime. Early on, Ermino and Domenic have a run-in with young Colin O’Riley, the son of Brendan O’Riley—a very powerful police officer in the BPD; a generation-long enmity between the Bassinis and the O’Rileys will soon develop. Colin becomes a dirty and dangerous cop and the nemesis of Domenic’s son, Dommy, who’s a war hero, a scrupulously honest cop, and a beacon for the future. (As his wife, Martha, later says ruefully, “Dommy didn’t want to just be a cop. He wanted to be a saint.”) The narrative runs from 1914 to the 1950s and through three generations of triumphs and tragedies; the city of Boston is as much a character as the human characters. The author effectively illustrates the ways in which struggles for power in the city often resembled a fight between scorpions trapped in a bottle. The story covers the Brahmins, who lost Boston but controlled the State House; the Irish, who took over the BPD; the Italian Mafia and lesser gangs; and the often hilariously corrupt politicians. In the course of the tale, readers encounter the famous police strike of 1919, the Great Molasses Flood of that same year, the Spanish flu, and several cameo references (including Joseph Kennedy, Sacco and Vanzetti, and James Michael Curley).
A moving and well-written saga of an earlier time in America.Pub Date: June 1, 2024
ISBN: 978-1-963844-04-7
Page Count: -
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: March 31, 2024
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
Great crime fiction.
An apparent suicide threatens to destroy an Irish farm town in the final volume of French’s Cal Hooper trilogy.
In the fictional western Ireland townland of Ardnakelty, “there’s a girl going after missing.” Soon young Rachel Holohan is found dead in the river. Shortly before, she had stopped at Lena Dunne’s home, and nothing had seemed amiss. The medical examiner determines she’d swallowed antifreeze, and he presumes she then fell from a bridge into the water. The medical examiner and the town agree she’d died by suicide. But there is far more to the plot: 16-year-old Trey Reddy thinks Tommy Moynihan murdered Rachel. Moynihan doles out favors and punishments to the local townsfolk, who know it’s best not to cross him. Now rumors spread that Moynihan wants land and has a secret plan to forcibly buy up parcels from the locals. A factory will be built, or a great big data center, or who knows what. If Tommy’s son, Eugene, can get elected to the local council, then compulsory purchase orders for land will follow, and the farms will disappear. Eugene, who’d been romantically involved with Rachel, is wonderfully described as “on the weedy edge of good-looking” and just fine as long as you “don’t have high expectations in the way of chins.” Lena is engaged to the American Cal Hooper, an ex-cop turned woodworker. They are “more or less raising” Trey, and these three core characters are drawn into the mystery of Rachel’s death and may have to face the looming clouds of civilizational change for Ardnakelty. Lena is chastised for “asking your wee questions all round the townland,” and Trey wants to quit school, against Cal’s advice. Finally, the story’s best line: “You can’t go killing people just because they deserve it.”
Great crime fiction.Pub Date: March 31, 2026
ISBN: 9780593493465
Page Count: 496
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: Dec. 26, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2026
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