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
An existential crisis that steps on its own final moments.
With only a month left until the world ends due to a swiftly approaching black hole, Don and Rodney, a retired gay couple, road-trip from Maine to Washington to spend their final days with their son.
After reports that a planet-swallowing black hole is making its way toward Earth, Rodney and Don—who have been together for 40 years and survived everything from homophobia to the HIV crisis—decide to pack their belongings into an RV, say goodbye to their neighbors, and travel from Camden, Maine, to Washington to uphold a promise to spend their final days with their son. They can’t wait any longer, since there’s already chaos around the country: “Military vehicles in the streets of most cities and towns. Looting, rioting, the burning of cars and buildings and people, all of it had already happened.” As they make their way west across the country, they encounter fellow travelers ranging from close-knit families to free-spirited hippies, some of whom have come to terms with the impending end of the world and others who haven’t. While the story seems to be asking readers what they would do if they had 30 days left to live, and reflects on what different kinds of acceptance might look like in the face of unavoidable tragedy, it loses some of its poignancy in a series of thinly padded monologues about the meaning of life. Clearly intended to pack an emotional punch, it’s failed by an abrupt ending, and the way the journey’s mystery—which will be obvious to many readers—is revealed by an info dump in the last chapter.
An existential crisis that steps on its own final moments.Pub Date: April 28, 2026
ISBN: 9781250881236
Page Count: 176
Publisher: Tor
Review Posted Online: March 9, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2026
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