Fonseca
A Novel
-
- $19.99
Publisher Description
Named a Top 10 Historical Fiction Book of 2025 by the New York Times Book Review
Named a Best Book of the Year by Esquire, Kirkus, and the Chicago Tribune Biblioracle
Named a Best Historical Fiction Book and Best Audio Book of the Year by Bookpage
A New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice
“Kane’s remarkable excavation of this interlude, including real letters from Valpy, drips with juicy conflict and detail.” —Los Angeles Times
“A fable with heart and a searching investigation into what makes a marriage endure." —Boston Globe
"A marvel of sharp concision." —Wall Street Journal
“A daring book…fresh and beautiful.” —Chicago Tribune
The story acclaimed English author Penelope Fitzgerald never wrote, of her real-life journey to Mexico with her son in search of a much-needed inheritance, by Jessica Francis Kane, bestselling author of Rules for Visiting
Winter 1952. Penelope Fitzgerald’s husband is a struggling alcoholic, their literary journal is on the brink, and she is pregnant with their third child. When she receives a letter from two elderly sisters named Delaney, distant relations with a silver mine, who dangle the possibility of an inheritance, she recognizes it as a creative and practical lifeline.
Jessica Francis Kane’s brilliantly imagined Fonseca fictionalizes Penelope’s real and momentous trip to northern Mexico in pursuit of this legacy. She leaves her two-year-old, Tina, with relatives and sails for New York with her six-year-old, Valpy, in tow. From there, mother and son take a bus all the way to . . . Fonseca.
But when they arrive, nothing goes to plan. There are others vying for the Delaney money, and for three months, from Day of the Dead to Candlemas, Penelope must navigate a quixotic household and guide her impressionable son. More and more people frequent the house: an ambitious American couple, various local entrepreneurs and artists (including Edward Hopper and his wife, Jo), and finally a handsome stranger who claims he is a Delaney.
With heart, humor, and a deep understanding of her subject that has characterized the range of her work her whole career, Kane (whose work “could have been written by Jane Austen’s great great-great-granddaughter” —Oprah Daily) has written much more than an homage: Fonseca is an enthralling world of its own as well as a stunning fictionalization of a season in Fitzgerald’s life.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Kane follows up Rules for Visiting with a masterful novel drawn from a journey British author Penelope Fitzgerald (1916–2000) made to northern Mexico in 1952. Penelope's husband, Desmond, is an alcoholic, their London literary journal is on the verge of bankruptcy, and she's three months pregnant with a child they can't afford. Things take a promising turn when she receives letters from two women claiming to be old family friends. Elderly widow Elena Delaney and her sister-in-law Anita, Irish expats living in Mexico, explain that they have a silver mining fortune but no heirs; if Penelope brings her son to meet them, they might leave him the money. Penelope doesn't remember the women, but her finances are too precarious to refuse. She and six-year-old Valpy travel to the small town of Fonseca, arriving on the Day of the Dead. The Delaneys, both heavy drinkers, barely recall their letters, and Penelope is just one of many visitors seeking a share of their wealth. As Penelope waits, hoping she and Valpy will win their favor, her attraction to a man claiming to be a distant Delaney relation tests her loyalty to Desmond and she takes what might be her first stabs at writing fiction. 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.
