Reviews

“Kane’s deeply researched, wonderfully imagined third novel... Kane has seeded her novel with every morsel of detail she can find, including her correspondence with two of Fitzgerald’s three children, Valpy and Tina, whose emails are beautifully and intriguingly interspersed into the novel... Kane infused FONSECA with a big, beautiful blur of fact and fiction. She writes with a winning combination of fascinating detail and finely-tuned humor, adding luscious layers of increasing intrigue to her narrative. Don’t miss this fine novel, which will likely win Fitzgerald a whole new legion of fans.” —BookPage (starred) 

“Kane’s third novel is based on the true story of a trip taken in 1952 by Penelope Fitzgerald… The trip was futile in the short run—in a London Review of Books essay, Fitzgerald called Saltillo ‘Fonesca,’ Latin for ‘dry well’—but, in Kane’s hands, profoundly influential. The novel also includes actual letters from Fitzgerald’s children, bolstering the sense that their mother’s trip to Mexico was thick with mysteries. Kane’s novel elegantly fills in the gaps. A finely turned novel that evokes its subject’s gift for slyly biting domestic tales.” —Kirkus (starred)

“A masterful novel... Adding to the rich tension between fact and fiction are undated letters from the real Valpy and Fitzgerald’s older daughter, Tina, to an unidentified recipient concerning the 1952 trip. It amounts to a luminous exploration of a woman’s desperation and resilience.” —Publishers Weekly (starred) 

“Kane has vividly imagined [Fitzgerald’s] experience in Fonseca, creating a story that's steeped in atmosphere as it explores themes of class and creativity, seasoning that mix with a touch of romance and even a bit of a ghost story… Kane paints a revealing, multidimensional psychological portrait of… Fitzgerald, one that's enriched by information she gained from e-mail exchanges with the adult Valpy and his younger sister Tina, excerpts of which appear periodically in the text. It's an unusual, but effective, technique that doesn't detract from the novel's appeal as a work of fiction… the Fitzgerald who appears in Fonseca is a deeply sympathetic character: a loving mother, anguished wife, and writer in whom the fires of literary ambition are smoldering, waiting to burst into flames.” –Shelf Awareness

“Miraculously wrenching and charming, imaginative and true, Jessica Francis Kane’s Fonseca brings the indomitable Penelope Fitzgerald, and this entrancing world of Fonseca, to life. We watch riveted as Fitzgerald grasps at and grabs for the freedom, the art, that so many of us yearn toward, continue doggedly to search for, even as circumstance, family, the dredges and seductions of life continue to get in our way.” —Lynn Steger Strong, author of Want

“Jessica Francis Kane has written a vivid and moving novel set in a stunning Mexican landscape. It is inspired by a mysterious journey hidden until now. To tell you more would betray the delicious experience. Highly recommended.” —Luis Alberto Urrea, author of Good Night, Irene

“Fonseca is a beautifully written novel about a woman searching for her own story during a precarious moment in her life. Read this book for the mystery, for the joy of encountering the complicated marriage of the artists Jo and Edward Hopper, for the love stories of the main character, Penelope: with a handsome stranger; her charming, alcoholic husband; her children; and with herself. This is the novel Penelope Fitzgerald was unable, or unwilling, to write during her own lifetime, and it chimes with quiet, perfect notes. I loved it.” —Ann Napolitano, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Hello Beautiful

“Jessica Francis Kane has done something marvelous—bringing us Penelope Fitzgerald as a character in a novel she meant to write but never wrote—and maybe never could write, for how it was about herself in some extraordinary straits. Hauntingly witty, funny, pitch-perfect, Penelope Fitzgerald comes alive again in Fonseca. I was riveted, start to finish.” —Alexander Chee, bestselling author of How to Write and Autobiographical Novel

“Near the end of Fonseca, a question is raised: ‘Would you agree it was a treasure hunt that became a mystery that turned into a love story?’ It is all of the above, and more—a sublime imaginative rendering of a lost episode in the life of a famous writer who is unmoored by desperation yet determined to move forward, somehow, even in unfamiliar surroundings. Jessica Francis Kane has written a rich, compelling portrait of human need, desire, and growth. When I finished the last page, I felt the profound satisfaction of having discovered a truly great book.” —Alice Elliott Dark, author of Fellowship Point and In the Gloaming

“Jessica Francis Kane’s brilliant and atmospheric novel imagines renowned writer Penelope Fitzgerald’s bold journey to Northern Mexico in search of self-reliance—a quest as internal as it is external. In this imaginative, frank, and quietly wrenching book, Kane walks us to a place where we can feel Fitzgerald reach for the freedom which so many women want and deserve—and may never find. Fonseca gets to the heart of what happens when we believe in our dreams, take risks, and are forever changed by the quest itself.” —Megan Mayhew Bergman, author of How Strange a Season