“Some books are essential, others diversions,” the boy thinks to himself. This book belongs in the former category.
Delivering mail to remote Icelandic farms becomes a struggle for survival against the crushing forces of nature.
Three weeks have passed since the tragic incidents in Heaven and Hell, the first installment in Stefánsson’s Trilogy About the Boy. Now, in the second, the eponymous main character, who had planned to kill himself in despair after the accidental death of his friend, is finding a reason to live again in his village in northwestern Iceland. The unnamed, orphaned boy has found a new family with Geirþrúður, an older woman whose independence unsettles the village’s male leadership, and with the strays she’s welcomed into her stately home. Geirþrúður detects a sensitivity in him that’s unlike the men around her; she plans to give him a good education and help him make his way in the world. But first the boy is enlisted to help the postman Jens in the perilous task of delivering mail to remote farms in the frostbitten north. The pair find themselves trudging across wind-blasted heaths and mountains with zero visibility in the falling snow (“the sorrow of angels”). Each carries internal conflicts with him: Jens is afraid to admit his love for Salvör, a farmer’s maid with an unhappy romantic past; the boy feels sadness for his dead friend and attraction to a flirtatious shopgirl who’s leaving the village soon. Nature’s humbling power, Stefánsson suggests, gives sharpened clarity to those with troubled hearts. But the monotony of the pair’s endless trek is reflected in the excessively long account of their journey, which ends frustratingly with a literal and figurative cliffhanger that dangles many questions. Will the boy’s love of literature blossom into a writer’s career? Will he find happiness? Meaning? Love? Readers must look ahead to the final book for answers.
“Some books are essential, others diversions,” the boy thinks to himself. This book belongs in the former category.Pub Date: Nov. 4, 2025
ISBN: 9781771966801
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Biblioasis
Review Posted Online: Aug. 29, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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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