A fast-paced, easily digestible historical epic.
Williamson presents a tale of early-20th-century German South West Africa (now Namibia), told from a white colonist’s point of view.
In 1903, a young German named Conrad Huber receives the position of commissioner’s aide at the German Colonial Office in South West Africa. There, he stays in Commissioner Leutwein’s home in Windhoek, where he meets Sybille, who works in the commissioner’s office and is the daughter of Samuel Maharero, leader of the local Herero people. Due to ongoing struggles between Leutwein and Maj. Dietrich Baumhauer, the leader of the local militia, Conrad and Sybille are sent to negotiate with Maharero. Conrad soon rushes back to Leutwein, leaving Sybille with plans to reunite in Windhoek later, and he soon finds himself in the midst of a rebellion that results in Leutwein’s resignation and Conrad’s promotion to the Colonial Office’s Chief Expert under Gen. Lothar von Trotha. A battle with the Herero then ensues; Conrad receives a debilitating leg injury and is saved by his cousin Georg, who’s stationed in Windhoek. Von Trotha employs aggressive, inhumane tactics: “The Hottentots are savage and cowardly dogs,” he says at one point, employing an offensive term for the local inhabitants. “Murderous, villainous cannibals that must be put down!” Meanwhile, Conrad uses his new authority to track down the missing Sybille. Overall, Williamson deftly weaves an engaging story of adventure while taking care not to minimize the horrors inflicted upon the region’s people by Western European colonists. Readers may take exception to the fact that the story is told entirely from Conrad’s viewpoint; the author, in an afterword, notes this: “I have attempted to use my own lens to turn the white knight trope upside down and show how utterly helpless, out of place and unwanted such a ‘hero’ is.” The story’s structure is easy to follow, and although the author employs a certain amount of creative license to sustain the plot (the real-life Maharero didn’t have a German wife and a daughter named Sybille, for instance), it’s still firmly anchored in historical fact, including the horrific Battle of Waterberg, in which thousands of Herero soldiers and their families were killed.
A fast-paced, easily digestible historical epic.Pub Date: Dec. 12, 2023
ISBN: 9798350930801
Page Count: 458
Publisher: BookBaby
Review Posted Online: Jan. 29, 2024
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
SEEN & HEARD
A pleasant if not entirely convincing tribute to the power of art.
A French art historian’s English-language fiction debut combines the story of a loving relationship between a grandfather and granddaughter with an enlightening discussion of art.
One day, when 10-year-old Mona removes the necklace given to her by her now-dead grandmother, she experiences a frightening, hour-long bout of blindness. Her parents take her to the doctor, who gives her a variety of tests and also advises that she see a psychiatrist. Her grandfather Henry tells her parents that he will take care of that assignment, but instead, he takes Mona on weekly visits to either the Louvre, the Musée d’Orsay, or the Centre Pompidou, where each week they study a single work of art, gazing at it deeply and then discussing its impact and history and the biography of its maker. For the reader’s benefit, Schlesser also describes each of the works in scrupulous detail. As the year goes on, Mona faces the usual challenges of elementary school life and the experiences of being an only child, and slowly begins to understand the causes of her temporary blindness. Primarily an amble through a few dozen of Schlesser’s favorite works of art—some well known and others less so, from Botticelli and da Vinci through Basquiat and Bourgeois—the novel would probably benefit from being read at a leisurely pace. While the dialogue between Henry and the preternaturally patient and precocious Mona sometimes strains credulity, readers who don’t have easy access to the museums of Paris may enjoy this vicarious trip in the company of a guide who focuses equally on that which can be seen and the context that can’t be. Come for the novel, stay for the introductory art history course.
A pleasant if not entirely convincing tribute to the power of art.Pub Date: Aug. 26, 2025
ISBN: 9798889661115
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Europa Editions
Review Posted Online: June 7, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2025
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
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