FONSECA

English novelist Penelope Fitzgerald took a mostly undocumented half-year sojourn to Mexico in the 1950s, and this new story by Jessica Francis Kane is a fictional account of that visit. Cerris Morgan-Moyer narrates as Fitzgerald and her young son become guests of two capricious spinsters who are distant relatives in small-town Fonseca. Their ambiguous invitation implied the existence of an inheritance, and Morgan-Moyer depicts Fitzgerald's growing confusion as she encounters a string of local hangers-on who are also vying for the sisters' favor. Colorful characters include the grumpy housekeeper with a heart of gold and the charming man from New York who might be an imposter. Actual letters from Fitzgerald's children, written during that period, are delivered by Nicholas Guy Smith and Christine Rendel. N.M.C. © AudioFile 2025, Portland, Maine [Published: OCTOBER 2025]