A flawed but engaging novel about a romantically fraught period abroad.
In Hess’ literary novella, a man in the midst of a marital crisis looks to a decades-old diary for guidance.
Married Manhattanites Brant and Lloyd have temporarily moved to Delhi for Lloyd’s work. They should be having the time of their lives in the beautiful, ancient city, but Brant is consumed by grief and guilt: grief over the recent death of his mother and guilt that his grief drove him to cheat on Lloyd with another man. While Lloyd works, Brant gardens, until one day he discovers an old diary buried in the dirt. Written in 1945, it’s the account of a woman named Carol, who also found herself in Delhi due to her husband’s job. “He hasn’t touched me in a year,” writes Carol. “I hate him for that. I blame it on his work, but who knows. I’ve stopped trying. My mother told me sex was the least important part of a happy marriage. I’m really stuck here.” Brant becomes absorbed by Carol’s tale and its similarities to his own life, but when reading of Carol’s infidelity leads Brant to confess his own affair to Lloyd, he finds his story and Carol’s increasingly—and disastrously—intertwined. Hess’ deliberate prose effectively captures Brant’s emotional state, as when he excavates the diary: “The sun burned and he dug quickly seeing the back, the edges, the circumference. He pressed away more earth, then wrenched the thing free. It was sheathed in plastic, protected from the elements like some sacred text. He held it in his hands and it felt warm, pulsing with life.” The plot is a bit too contrived, unfortunately. Despite imbuing the journal with great significance (and having nothing better to do all day), Brant seems to read the diary over the course of many weeks instead of all at once. The story twists and heightens in a way that buoys the reader along, but it fails to leave an emotional impression.
A flawed but engaging novel about a romantically fraught period abroad.Pub Date: Nov. 12, 2023
ISBN: 9781608642670
Page Count: 130
Publisher: REBEL SATORI PRESS
Review Posted Online: June 14, 2023
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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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