An emotionally stirring narrative somewhat blunted by structural problems.
In Raydun’s novel, a Jewish family recounts their tale of emigration from the Soviet Union.
During the Covid-19 pandemic, a young student named Benjamin is in Israel with his great-grandparents, Iliya and Frida Mikhailovich; his grandparents, Raya and Sergey; his mother, Rita; and his Aunt Marianna. Eager for a break from the monotony of the lockdown, Benjamin asks his family about their immigration history for a school paper he’s writing. He learns that when Israel sought the repatriation of Jewish people from the Soviet Union, Iliya, his wife, and their children—seeing this as the family’s way out of Ukraine—lied about having Jewish relatives in Israel to secure their departure. The narrative follows the family, which, after contending with suspicious guards and bag searches, takes multiple trains before reaching Vienna. While there, the family struggles with discrimination and culture shock, most notably in the markets: “Raya hated the supermarkets in Vienna. The audacity of the abundance set her skin on fire.” Later, the family heads to Rome to be closer to the American Embassy, with their sights ultimately set on immigrating to the United States. Rome is where the women of the family (save for Raya, who is tormented by her fears of the outside world and the ills it may bestow upon her children) thrive as Frida opens an unofficial medical clinic and Rita quickly learns the Italian language. Marianna often goes to the beach with Iliya, and it is there she catches the eye of a young Italian boy named Luca. (As her mother notes, “Marianna did inherit every family member’s best features and left the less favorable ones to her sister.”) The men have less luck: Sergey feels intense guilt because his desire for a better life for his children meant abandoning his parents, and Iliya experiences an emotional crisis, thinking, “If this was his life’s dream coming true, then why was he feeling as if he were being buried alive the second he was finally free?” In alternating, present-set chapters, Benjamin peppers his family with questions and has them explain aspects of their story that are foreign to his experience as “the spoiled brat of the family.”
Raydun’s tale bears emotional heft, ironically stemming mainly from the two characters who receive the least amount of focus in the story: Iliya has dementia in the present, but his brief instants of lucidity are moving; equally stirring is Rita’s present-day understanding of herself as an afterthought in the family, essentially left to fend for herself. Unfortunately, more time is given to Marianna’s love life. The story is an important one, rooted in actual immigration history, but the prose could be a bit more elevated. Additionally, while the lockdown chapters are necessary, the switching between past and present is too frequent and interrupts the fluidity of the narrative. Still, this is an engaging tale about a specific wave of immigration about which relatively little has been explored.
An emotionally stirring narrative somewhat blunted by structural problems.Pub Date: Oct. 14, 2025
ISBN: 9798988085911
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Self
Review Posted Online: Nov. 3, 2025
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
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
A boarding-school fantasia, with Hilderbrand’s signature upgrades to the cuisine and decor. Sign us up for next term.
A year in the life of the No. 2 boarding school in America—up from No. 19 last year!
Rumors of Hilderbrand’s retirement were greatly exaggerated, it turns out, since not only has she not gone out to pasture, she’s started over in high school, with her daughter Shelby Cunningham as co-author. As their delicious new book opens, it’s Move-In Day at Tiffin Academy, and Head of School Audre Robinson is warmly welcoming the returning and new students to the New England campus, the latter group including a rare midstream addition to the junior class. Brainiac Charley Hicks is transferring from public school in Maryland to a spot that opened up when one of the school’s most beloved students died by suicide the preceding year. She will be joining a large, diverse cast of adult and teenage characters—queen bees, jealous second-stringers, boozehounds young and old, secret lesbians, people chasing the wrong people chasing other wrong people—all of them royally screwed when an app called Zip Zap appears and starts blasting everyone’s secrets all over campus. How the heck…? Meanwhile, it seems so unlikely that Tiffin has jumped up to the No. 2 spot in the boarding-school rankings that a high-profile magazine launches an investigation, and even the head is worried that there may have been payola involved. The school has a reputation for being more social than academic, and this quality gets an exciting new exclamation point when the resident millionaire bad boy opens a high-style secret speakeasy for select juniors in a forgotten basement. It’s called Priorities. Exactly. One problem: Cinnamon Peters’ mysterious suicide hangs over the book in an odd way, especially since the note she left for her closest male friend is not to be opened for another year—and isn’t. This is surely a setup for a sequel, but it’s a bit frustrating here, and bobs sort of shallowly along amid the general high spirits.
A boarding-school fantasia, with Hilderbrand’s signature upgrades to the cuisine and decor. Sign us up for next term.Pub Date: Sept. 16, 2025
ISBN: 9780316567855
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: July 4, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2025
SEEN & HEARD
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