An earnest if opaque journey into a country’s troubled past.
A melancholy tribute to an early champion of Ukrainian independence.
This novel by veteran author Maljartschuk alternates between the first-person narration of a present-day Ukrainian scholar and third-person history about Viacheslav Lypynskyi (1882-1931), a forceful advocate for Ukrainian statehood. It was a difficult case to make, with Russia claiming the region for itself and many Poles arguing that Ukrainians weren’t ethnically distinct. But Lypynskyi, along with a handful of fellow writers and coffee-house revolutionaries, spearheaded a passionate defense of Ukrainian identity—he wrote the first Ukrainian almanac—even if few rushed to join in. (“The Ukrainian community is a flock of naïve sheep ruled by wolves,” one man observes.) Meanwhile, the narrator develops a passion for Ukrainian literature and becomes a writer herself, discovering Lypynskyi’s story when she uncovers his obituary in an old newspaper. Maljartschuk parallels the woman’s illnesses and failed romances with Lypynskyi’s own poor health, unhappy marriage, and exile in Vienna. “The world had ceased to be a place where one could be sure of oneself,” she observes for both of them. Maljartschuk’s story is of course relevant in 2023, and she is expert at merging history and metaphor (whales and mythical figures are woven into the story); the fragmentary approach echoes Olga Tokarczuk’s sober fictions of eastern Europe. But the story is often sluggish, relating the two protagonists’ experiences in a sometimes stiff translation. Lypynskyi was a complicated figure, a stubborn monarchist who alienated his colleagues and was prone to pomposity. (“Not a single voice stood in my defense when the froth that now grows into moss on the wreckage and spreads befell me.”) That makes him hard to get a fix on. Maljartschuk has chronicled the ferment of the independence movement and its legacy, but the storytelling’s digressiveness and mood sap its force.
An earnest if opaque journey into a country’s troubled past.Pub Date: Jan. 23, 2024
ISBN: 9781324093220
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Liveright/Norton
Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2023
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
A vibrant tale of a remarkable woman.
Who was Shakespeare?
Move over, Earl of Oxford and Francis Bacon: There’s another contender for the true author of plays attributed to the bard of Stratford—Emilia Bassano, a clever, outspoken, educated woman who takes center stage in Picoult’s spirited novel. Of Italian heritage, from a family of court musicians, Emilia was a hidden Jew and the courtesan of a much older nobleman who vetted plays to be performed for Queen Elizabeth. She was well traveled—unlike Shakespeare, she visited Italy and Denmark, where, Picoult imagines, she may have met Rosencrantz and Guildenstern—and was familiar with court intrigue and English law. “Every gap in Shakespeare’s life or knowledge that has had to be explained away by scholars, she somehow fills,” Picoult writes. Encouraged by her lover, Emilia wrote plays and poetry, but 16th-century England was not ready for a female writer. Picoult interweaves Emilia’s story with that of her descendant Melina Green, an aspiring playwright, who encounters the same sexist barriers to making herself heard that Emilia faced. In alternating chapters, Picoult follows Melina’s frustrated efforts to get a play produced—a play about Emilia, who Melina is certain sold her work to Shakespeare. Melina’s play, By Any Other Name, “wasn’t meant to be a fiction; it was meant to be the resurrection of an erasure.” Picoult creates a richly detailed portrait of daily life in Elizabethan England, from sumptuous castles to seedy hovels. Melina’s story is less vivid: Where Emilia found support from the witty Christopher Marlowe, Melina has a fashion-loving gay roommate; where Emilia faces the ravages of repeated outbreaks of plague, for Melina, Covid-19 occurs largely offstage; where Emilia has a passionate affair with the adoring Earl of Southampton, Melina’s lover is an awkward New York Times theater critic. It’s Emilia’s story, and Picoult lovingly brings her to life.
A vibrant tale of a remarkable woman.Pub Date: Aug. 20, 2024
ISBN: 9780593497210
Page Count: 544
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: June 15, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2024
© Copyright 2025 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
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