A life-affirming, if fragmented, page-turner written in a refreshingly offbeat style.
The lives of two strangers interconnect in unexpected ways in Anderson’s debut novel.
Chris is a Milwaukee-based tech whiz who, along with his friends, is in the process of developing an app that helps arborists find work. At the opening of the novel he’s pale, addicted to “things that made them feel alive or dead, depending on the need.” Jo is a divorced woman who owns a flower store in Mount Horeb, Wisconsin, cares deeply for her community, and is tentative about getting involved in a romantic relationship. Chris’ app is an instant success, making him a multimillionaire. However, his new wealth leads him to become more introverted, and he turns to painting as an outlet. After his mother presents him with a paintbrush that belonged to his deceased father, his creations perplex him, and he begins to find himself in situations that exactly match his imagined paintings. Meanwhile, Jo wrestles with her feelings for Grant, a friend and employee, but is shocked by his xenophobic response when she hires a woman named Paj. Restless, Jo takes an impromptu trip to Zurich, where she meets the enigmatic Micha, a garden designer. They have an unforgettable evening together and then part ways. The novel follows Chris’ and Jo’s seemingly independent lives over the course of a year. Readers will be kept guessing how, if ever, the two strangers’ lives will connect.
This is an intriguing work of subtle magical realism and unconventional romance. Anderson shows off a delightful descriptive style that’s beautifully simple yet effortlessly evocative: “Every year she noticed the same old man walk past daily and pause, noticing new buds pop wide as if from a magician’s hand.” The author creates psychologically believable characters that develop as the novel progresses. It’s particularly interesting to observe how Chris matures from the “video games, porn, and the occasional programming language” aficionado of his graduate years to a man fully immersed in the creative process. There are moments when Anderson shares wise advice through minor characters; after Chris’ mother suffers a stroke, for example, he’s advised by his mother’s nurse: “Try to give yourself as few of those regrets as you possibly can. You might think you can’t climb this mountain. But you can.” On other occasions, the author effectively wields humor; while describing a visit to a nudist club, he writes, “Jo didn’t know if naked was the right word, since the man was wearing a cowboy hat.” The novel has notably short chapters, moving back and forth between Chris and Jo. It’s a notably disjointed approach, but it often quickens the pace of an already compelling work. Anderson’s characters sometimes impulsively partake in unexpected activities, such as Jo’s overseas trip, but this adds a further element of surprise to a plot that has many diverting twists and turns. Overall, Anderson’s debut is an intelligent celebration of life, love, and creative endeavor and often proves a joy to read.
A life-affirming, if fragmented, page-turner written in a refreshingly offbeat style.Pub Date: Sept. 8, 2023
ISBN: 9798988749301
Page Count: 610
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: June 13, 2023
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Still, a respectful and absorbing page-turner.
Hannah’s new novel is an homage to the extraordinary courage and endurance of Frenchwomen during World War II.
In 1995, an elderly unnamed widow is moving into an Oregon nursing home on the urging of her controlling son, Julien, a surgeon. This trajectory is interrupted when she receives an invitation to return to France to attend a ceremony honoring passeurs: people who aided the escape of others during the war. Cut to spring, 1940: Viann has said goodbye to husband Antoine, who's off to hold the Maginot line against invading Germans. She returns to tending her small farm, Le Jardin, in the Loire Valley, teaching at the local school and coping with daughter Sophie’s adolescent rebellion. Soon, that world is upended: The Germans march into Paris and refugees flee south, overrunning Viann’s land. Her long-estranged younger sister, Isabelle, who has been kicked out of multiple convent schools, is sent to Le Jardin by Julien, their father in Paris, a drunken, decidedly unpaternal Great War veteran. As the depredations increase in the occupied zone—food rationing, systematic looting, and the billeting of a German officer, Capt. Beck, at Le Jardin—Isabelle’s outspokenness is a liability. She joins the Resistance, volunteering for dangerous duty: shepherding downed Allied airmen across the Pyrenees to Spain. Code-named the Nightingale, Isabelle will rescue many before she's captured. Meanwhile, Viann’s journey from passive to active resistance is less dramatic but no less wrenching. Hannah vividly demonstrates how the Nazis, through starvation, intimidation and barbarity both casual and calculated, demoralized the French, engineering a community collapse that enabled the deportations and deaths of more than 70,000 Jews. Hannah’s proven storytelling skills are ideally suited to depicting such cataclysmic events, but her tendency to sentimentalize undermines the gravitas of this tale.
Still, a respectful and absorbing page-turner.Pub Date: Feb. 3, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-312-57722-3
Page Count: 448
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: Nov. 19, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2014
BOOK TO SCREEN
SEEN & HEARD
BOOK TO SCREEN
A tender and moving portrait about the transcendent power of art and friendship.
An artwork’s value grows if you understand the stories of the people who inspired it.
Never in her wildest dreams would foster kid Louisa dream of meeting C. Jat, the famous painter of The One of the Sea, which depicts a group of young teens on a pier on a hot summer’s day. But in Backman’s latest, that’s just what happens—an unexpected (but not unbelievable) set of circumstances causes their paths to collide right before the dying 39-year-old artist’s departure from the world. One of his final acts is to bequeath that painting to Louisa, who has endured a string of violent foster homes since her mother abandoned her as a child. Selling the painting will change her life—but can she do it? Before deciding, she accompanies Ted, one of the artist’s close friends and one of the young teens captured in that celebrated painting, on a train journey to take the artist’s ashes to his hometown. She wants to know all about the painting, which launched Jat’s career at age 14, and the circle of beloved friends who inspired it. The bestselling author of A Man Called Ove (2014) and other novels, Backman gives us a heartwarming story about how these friends, set adrift by the violence and unhappiness of their homes, found each other and created a new definition of family. “You think you’re alone,” one character explains, “but there are others like you, people who stand in front of white walls and blank paper and only see magical things. One day one of them will recognize you and call out: ‘You’re one of us!’” As Ted tells stories about his friends—how Jat doubted his talents but found a champion in fiery Joar, who took on every bully to defend him; how Ali brought an excitement to their circle that was “like a blinding light, like a heart attack”—Louisa recognizes herself as a kindred soul and feels a calling to realize her own artistic gifts. What she decides to do with the painting is part of a caper worthy of the stories that Ted tells her. The novel is humorous, poignant, and always life-affirming, even when describing the bleakness of the teens’ early lives. “Art is a fragile magic, just like love,” as someone tells Louisa, “and that’s humanity’s only defense against death.”
A tender and moving portrait about the transcendent power of art and friendship.Pub Date: May 6, 2025
ISBN: 9781982112820
Page Count: 448
Publisher: Atria
Review Posted Online: July 4, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2025
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
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