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
Have tissues ready as you read this. A small package will do.
A love story about a life of second chances.
In Nassau, in the Bahamas, casino detective Vincent LaPorta grills Alfie Logan, who’d come up a winner three times in a row at the roulette table and walked away with $2 million. “How did you do it?” asks the detective. Alfie calmly denies cheating. You wired all the money to a Gianna Rule, LaPorta says. Why? To explain, Alfie produces a composition book with the words “For the Boss, to Be Read Upon My Death” written on the cover. Read this for answers, Alfie suggests, calling it a love story. His mother had passed along to him a strange trait: He can say “Twice!” and go back to a specific time and place to have a do-over. But it only works once for any particular moment, and then he must live with the new consequences. He can only do this for himself and can’t prevent anyone from dying. Alfie regularly uses his power—failing to impress a girl the first time, he finds out more about her, goes back in time, and presto! She likes him. The premise is of course not credible—LaPorta doesn’t buy it either—but it’s intriguing. Most people would probably love to go back and unsay something. The story’s focus is on Alfie’s love for Gianna and whether it’s requited, unrequited, or both. In any case, he’s obsessed with her. He’s a good man, though, an intelligent person with ordinary human failings and a solid moral compass. Albom writes in a warm, easy style that transports the reader to a world of second chances and what-ifs, where spirituality lies close to the surface but never intrudes on the story. Though a cynic will call it sappy, anyone who is sick to their core from the daily news will enjoy this escape from reality.
Have tissues ready as you read this. A small package will do.Pub Date: Oct. 7, 2025
ISBN: 9780062406682
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: July 18, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2025
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
With captivating dialogue, angst-y characters, and a couple of steamy sex scenes, Hoover has done it again.
After being released from prison, a young woman tries to reconnect with her 5-year-old daughter despite having killed the girl’s father.
Kenna didn’t even know she was pregnant until after she was sent to prison for murdering her boyfriend, Scotty. When her baby girl, Diem, was born, she was forced to give custody to Scotty’s parents. Now that she’s been released, Kenna is intent on getting to know her daughter, but Scotty’s parents won’t give her a chance to tell them what really happened the night their son died. Instead, they file a restraining order preventing Kenna from so much as introducing herself to Diem. Handsome, self-assured Ledger, who was Scotty’s best friend, is another key adult in Diem’s life. He’s helping her grandparents raise her, and he too blames Kenna for Scotty’s death. Even so, there’s something about her that haunts him. Kenna feels the pull, too, and seems to be seeking Ledger out despite his judgmental behavior. As Ledger gets to know Kenna and acknowledges his attraction to her, he begins to wonder if maybe he and Scotty’s parents have judged her unfairly. Even so, Ledger is afraid that if he surrenders to his feelings, Scotty’s parents will kick him out of Diem’s life. As Kenna and Ledger continue to mourn for Scotty, they also grieve the future they cannot have with each other. Told alternatively from Kenna’s and Ledger’s perspectives, the story explores the myriad ways in which snap judgments based on partial information can derail people’s lives. Built on a foundation of death and grief, this story has an undercurrent of sadness. As usual, however, the author has created compelling characters who are magnetic and sympathetic enough to pull readers in. In addition to grief, the novel also deftly explores complex issues such as guilt, self-doubt, redemption, and forgiveness.
With captivating dialogue, angst-y characters, and a couple of steamy sex scenes, Hoover has done it again.Pub Date: Jan. 18, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-5420-2560-7
Page Count: 335
Publisher: Montlake Romance
Review Posted Online: Oct. 12, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2021
SEEN & HEARD
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
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