Fans coast to coast can take pleasure in seeing Copperman’s quirky hero remain his rational, literal self, even out in...
Professional fact-finder Samuel Hoenig (The Question of the Felonious Friend, 2016, etc.) accepts a query from a client he can hardly refuse: his mother.
Though he resists the notion that people on the autism spectrum don’t develop the same attachments as their neurotypical peers, Samuel nevertheless has very little interest in discovering the whereabouts of his own father. Not, Samuel insists, because he lacks feelings, but because he lacks information. Reuben Hoenig left the family home 27 years ago, and since then, there’s been hardly a word about his career in the music business, his health, or even his whereabouts. This last had become of great concern to Vivian Hoenig, since she’s just received a letter from Reuben, the first in many years, suggesting that he may never be able to write to her again. Once she shapes her concern into a question—“Where is your father living now?”—it becomes a matter of professional urgency for Samuel to find Reuben. As proprietor of Questions Answered, his job is precisely and literally to answer questions. And Samuel is nothing if not precise and literal. He and his associate, Ms. Washburn, undertake a computer search and find that Reuben once worked for the Rayborn Corporation in Seattle. When he left Rayborn, his salary line seemed to be transferred to a George Kaplan of Mendoza Communications, in Los Angeles. But the intricate connections between Rayborn, Mendoza, and an outfit called Kaplan Enterprises in the neighborhood of Reseda simply can’t be traced online. Samuel, who’s never been more than a few hours from Piscataway, is going to have to get on a plane and travel to the San Fernando Valley, where only the patience and guidance of Ms. Washburn will stand between him and the terrors of hotel bathrooms, restaurant meals, and traffic on the 101. Even in his native New Jersey, Samuel is often a stranger in a strange land. But transporting him across the country gives Copperman, aka Cohen, the opportunity to open up his inner life and to explore his burgeoning relationship with his assistant.
Fans coast to coast can take pleasure in seeing Copperman’s quirky hero remain his rational, literal self, even out in fabulous La La Land.Pub Date: Oct. 8, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-7387-5079-8
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Midnight Ink/Llewellyn
Review Posted Online: July 16, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2017
Still, a respectful and absorbing page-turner.
Hannah’s new novel is an homage to the extraordinary courage and endurance of Frenchwomen during World War II.
In 1995, an elderly unnamed widow is moving into an Oregon nursing home on the urging of her controlling son, Julien, a surgeon. This trajectory is interrupted when she receives an invitation to return to France to attend a ceremony honoring passeurs: people who aided the escape of others during the war. Cut to spring, 1940: Viann has said goodbye to husband Antoine, who's off to hold the Maginot line against invading Germans. She returns to tending her small farm, Le Jardin, in the Loire Valley, teaching at the local school and coping with daughter Sophie’s adolescent rebellion. Soon, that world is upended: The Germans march into Paris and refugees flee south, overrunning Viann’s land. Her long-estranged younger sister, Isabelle, who has been kicked out of multiple convent schools, is sent to Le Jardin by Julien, their father in Paris, a drunken, decidedly unpaternal Great War veteran. As the depredations increase in the occupied zone—food rationing, systematic looting, and the billeting of a German officer, Capt. Beck, at Le Jardin—Isabelle’s outspokenness is a liability. She joins the Resistance, volunteering for dangerous duty: shepherding downed Allied airmen across the Pyrenees to Spain. Code-named the Nightingale, Isabelle will rescue many before she's captured. Meanwhile, Viann’s journey from passive to active resistance is less dramatic but no less wrenching. Hannah vividly demonstrates how the Nazis, through starvation, intimidation and barbarity both casual and calculated, demoralized the French, engineering a community collapse that enabled the deportations and deaths of more than 70,000 Jews. Hannah’s proven storytelling skills are ideally suited to depicting such cataclysmic events, but her tendency to sentimentalize undermines the gravitas of this tale.
Still, a respectful and absorbing page-turner.Pub Date: Feb. 3, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-312-57722-3
Page Count: 448
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: Nov. 19, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2014
BOOK TO SCREEN
SEEN & HEARD
BOOK TO SCREEN
The emotions run high, the conversations run deep, and the relationships ebb and flow with grace.
When tragedy strikes, a mother and daughter forge a new life.
Morgan felt obligated to marry her high school sweetheart, Chris, when she got pregnant with their daughter, Clara. But she secretly got along much better with Chris’ thoughtful best friend, Jonah, who was dating her sister, Jenny. Now her life as a stay-at-home parent has left her feeling empty but not ungrateful for what she has. Jonah and Jenny eventually broke up, but years later they had a one-night stand and Jenny got pregnant with their son, Elijah. Now Jonah is back in town, engaged to Jenny, and working at the local high school as Clara’s teacher. Clara dreams of being an actress and has a crush on Miller, who plans to go to film school, but her father doesn't approve. It doesn’t help that Miller already has a jealous girlfriend who stalks him via text from college. But Clara and Morgan’s home life changes radically when Chris and Jenny are killed in an accident, revealing long-buried secrets and forcing Morgan to reevaluate the life she chose when early motherhood forced her hand. Feeling betrayed by the adults in her life, Clara marches forward, acting both responsible and rebellious as she navigates her teenage years without her father and her aunt, while Jonah and Morgan's relationship evolves in the wake of the accident. Front-loaded with drama, the story leaves plenty of room for the mother and daughter to unpack their feelings and decide what’s next.
The emotions run high, the conversations run deep, and the relationships ebb and flow with grace.Pub Date: Dec. 10, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-5420-1642-1
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Montlake Romance
Review Posted Online: Oct. 13, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2019
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
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