A pleasing historical coming-of-age tale set in a Europe in flux.
In deBruney’s novel, a young woman seeks independence in the rapidly changing world of early-20th-century Austria.
In 1914, Ilse Eder is 17 years old and the youngest daughter of intellectual Dr. Ansel Eder. She quietly sits in the corner of her father’s meetings with some of the greatest thinkers in Vienna, exercising her own curiosity and forming her own opinions. Her father decides against formally debuting her into society, as he’s nervous about the city’s political atmosphere; instead, he sends her to live with her elder sister, Therese, and her in-laws, the Kassners, at their home outside Linz. Ilse finds the Kassners to be hostile but their close family friend, Junius von Hess, to be handsome and beguiling. Soon, she falls in love with him, even as tensions are increasing across Europe. In a novel divided into four parts, spanning more than two decades, DeBruney’s lyrical and briskly paced writing drawing readers into Ilse’s world. At first, experiencing a romance with Junius seems to be Ilse’s main purpose in life. DeBruney’s prose description of the young people’s feelings is particularly enchanting: “Rare is the mind that can resist the chemical pull of pleasures so foreign, sensations so new.” Yet, as the novel progresses, the author steps away from pure romance, extending Ilse’s journey into one of the mind and having her seek comfort in her own personhood. Both aspects of the story make it compelling, and strong research and attention to detail enhance it further; several footnotes expand on specifics, such as German language usage, literary references, and historical events. Although the time-jumps between the four parts (set in 1914, 1922, 1934, and 1936) can be jarring, the story remains satisfying as it plays with readers’ knowledge of the First and Second World Wars.
A pleasing historical coming-of-age tale set in a Europe in flux.Pub Date: Jan. 8, 2024
ISBN: 9798989556427
Page Count: 341
Publisher: Self
Review Posted Online: March 19, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2024
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A beautiful meditation on queer identity against a supernatural backdrop.
Three women deal very differently with vampirism in Schwab’s era-spanning follow-up to The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue (2020).
In 16th-century Spain, Maria seduces a wealthy viscount in an attempt to seize whatever control she can over her own life. It turns out that being a wife—even a wealthy one—is just another cage, but then a mysterious widow offers Maria a surprising escape route. In the 19th century, Charlotte is sent from her home in the English countryside to live with an aunt in London when she’s found trying to kiss her best friend. She’s despondent at the idea of marrying a man, but another mysterious widow—who has a secret connection to Maria’s widow from centuries earlier—appears and teaches Charlotte that she can be free to love whomever she chooses, if she’s brave enough. In 2019, Alice’s memories of growing up in Scotland with her mercurial older sister, Catty, pull her mind away from her first days at Harvard University. And though she doesn’t meet any mysterious widows, Alice wakes up alone after a one-night stand unable to tolerate sunlight, sporting two new fangs, and desperate to drink blood. Horrified at her transformation, she searches Boston for her hookup, who was the last person she remembers seeing before she woke up as a vampire. Schwab delicately intertwines the three storylines, which are compelling individually even before the reader knows how they will connect. Maria, Charlotte, and Alice are queer women searching for love, recognition, and wholeness, growing fangs and defying mortality in a world that would deny them their very existence. Alice’s flashbacks to Catty are particularly moving, and subtly play off themes of grief and loneliness laid out in the historical timelines.
A beautiful meditation on queer identity against a supernatural backdrop.Pub Date: June 10, 2025
ISBN: 9781250320520
Page Count: 544
Publisher: Tor
Review Posted Online: March 22, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
PERSPECTIVES
PERSPECTIVES
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
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