Haynes’ first collection of stories is a treasure trove of warmth, smarts, and wisdom.
A master class in storytelling from the inside out.
The “Martha” in the title novella that kicks off this spirited, witty, and illuminating array of short fiction is the recently deceased mother of Cynthia Garrison, a St. Louis-born-and-bred Black professional who is en route to the funeral home where Martha’s remains are being prepared for burial. Cynthia, caustic, judgmental, and perpetually dissatisfied, is staging in her mind a kind of extended wake for her caustic, judgmental, and perpetually dissatisfied mother. Not even the congenial, supportive presence of Janine Chalifour, a white co-worker who accompanies Cynthia on a trip to the mortuary, can distract Martha’s daughter from taking acrid inventory of her entitled mother’s unending torrent of insults, complaints, “harrumph[s],” and nagging correctives. The kind of mom who will routinely say things to her daughter like, “And this is what you’re wearing today?,” then cross her arms and “look from [Cynthia] to the doorknob and back. Like a bossy and overindulged German shepherd ready for its morning walk.” At the same time, Cynthia, who has had little time to acclimate herself to Martha’s death, knows there are aspects of this mostly exasperating legacy that have given her just as much to be grateful for, and it is through this private understanding that the story offers readers with similarly challenging families a route toward tentative yet uneasy reconciliation. This blend of edgy humor, discerning compassion, and acute observation pervades all these tales of intelligent, resourceful Black women who may not be as resilient as they think they are, but find surprising reserves of strength and self-sufficiency, even at their worst or, at least, most unsettling times.
Haynes’ first collection of stories is a treasure trove of warmth, smarts, and wisdom.Pub Date: Sept. 9, 2025
ISBN: 9781963270273
Page Count: 324
Publisher: McSweeney’s
Review Posted Online: July 17, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2025
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 beautiful meditation on queer identity against a supernatural backdrop.
Three women deal very differently with vampirism in Schwab’s era-spanning follow-up to The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue (2020).
In 16th-century Spain, Maria seduces a wealthy viscount in an attempt to seize whatever control she can over her own life. It turns out that being a wife—even a wealthy one—is just another cage, but then a mysterious widow offers Maria a surprising escape route. In the 19th century, Charlotte is sent from her home in the English countryside to live with an aunt in London when she’s found trying to kiss her best friend. She’s despondent at the idea of marrying a man, but another mysterious widow—who has a secret connection to Maria’s widow from centuries earlier—appears and teaches Charlotte that she can be free to love whomever she chooses, if she’s brave enough. In 2019, Alice’s memories of growing up in Scotland with her mercurial older sister, Catty, pull her mind away from her first days at Harvard University. And though she doesn’t meet any mysterious widows, Alice wakes up alone after a one-night stand unable to tolerate sunlight, sporting two new fangs, and desperate to drink blood. Horrified at her transformation, she searches Boston for her hookup, who was the last person she remembers seeing before she woke up as a vampire. Schwab delicately intertwines the three storylines, which are compelling individually even before the reader knows how they will connect. Maria, Charlotte, and Alice are queer women searching for love, recognition, and wholeness, growing fangs and defying mortality in a world that would deny them their very existence. Alice’s flashbacks to Catty are particularly moving, and subtly play off themes of grief and loneliness laid out in the historical timelines.
A beautiful meditation on queer identity against a supernatural backdrop.Pub Date: June 10, 2025
ISBN: 9781250320520
Page Count: 544
Publisher: Tor
Review Posted Online: March 22, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2025
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PERSPECTIVES
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