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Fonseca: A Novel
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 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 Fonseca is an enthralling world of its own as well as a stunning fictionalization of a season in Fitzgerald’s life.
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 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 Fonseca is an enthralling world of its own as well as a stunning fictionalization of a season in Fitzgerald’s life.
267 pages, Kindle Edition
First published August 12, 2025
253 people are currently reading
7279 people want to read
About the author
Jessica Francis Kane
16 books392 followersJessica Francis Kane’s new novel, FONSECA, will be published by Penguin Press on August 12, 2025. It is based on the mysterious trip to northern Mexico made by English writer Penelope Fitzgerald in 1952 and took Kane eight years to write. It has been named a most-anticipated book of 2025 by the Los Angeles Times, LitHub, Publisher's Weekly and others.
Her previous novel, RULES FOR VISITING, was a 2019 Indie Next Pick and became a national bestseller. It was named one of the best books of the year by Oprah Magazine, Good Housekeeping, Vulture, The Chicago Tribune, San Francisco Chronicle, Wall Street Journal, Southern Living, Real Simple, The Today Show, and Good Morning America. In the UK it was published by Granta Books and was a finalist for the Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize.
Her first novel, THE REPORT, was published by Graywolf Press in the US (2010) and Granta Books in the UK (2011). It was a finalist for the First Novel Prize from the Center for Fiction and a Barnes & Noble Discover pick. In 2015 it was adapted and staged as a play in New York City.
Her story collection, THIS CLOSE, was published by Graywolf Press in 2013. It was long-listed for The Story Prize, the Frank O’Connor International Short Story Prize, and named a best book of the year by NPR.
Jessica’s stories and essays have appeared many places including, the New York Times, Slate, Virginia Quarterly Review, Zyzzyva, The Yale Review, A Public Space, and Granta. She is the recipient of fellowships from The MacDowell Colony and the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts.
She lives in New York City and Connecticut.
Her previous novel, RULES FOR VISITING, was a 2019 Indie Next Pick and became a national bestseller. It was named one of the best books of the year by Oprah Magazine, Good Housekeeping, Vulture, The Chicago Tribune, San Francisco Chronicle, Wall Street Journal, Southern Living, Real Simple, The Today Show, and Good Morning America. In the UK it was published by Granta Books and was a finalist for the Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize.
Her first novel, THE REPORT, was published by Graywolf Press in the US (2010) and Granta Books in the UK (2011). It was a finalist for the First Novel Prize from the Center for Fiction and a Barnes & Noble Discover pick. In 2015 it was adapted and staged as a play in New York City.
Her story collection, THIS CLOSE, was published by Graywolf Press in 2013. It was long-listed for The Story Prize, the Frank O’Connor International Short Story Prize, and named a best book of the year by NPR.
Jessica’s stories and essays have appeared many places including, the New York Times, Slate, Virginia Quarterly Review, Zyzzyva, The Yale Review, A Public Space, and Granta. She is the recipient of fellowships from The MacDowell Colony and the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts.
She lives in New York City and Connecticut.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 162 reviews
April 12, 2025
I loved writing this book!
August 29, 2025
I really love this author, she wrote Rules For Visiting, one of my favorites, so of course I wanted to read this as soon as it came out. The flip side of that is that this is a fictional account of a trip to Mexico with her 6 year old son made by Penelope Fitzgerald in 1953. I have read two of Fitzgerald's books and am not a fan. I know she is celebrated and won the Booker Prize for Offshore, her memoir of living on a houseboat, but she and I just don't connect.
This book was fascinating in many ways because of it's premise. Two elderly spinster sisters with a vague family connection wanted to get to know her son who might be in line for an inheritance. She left her husband and 2 year old daughter behind in England to go Mexico, but discovered when she got there that it was an audition of sorts, with at least 10 others vying for the same inheritance. The old house is Gothic, the sisters are strange, and the only one in the house who knows what's going on is the cook and housekeeper, who seems to have magical powers and knowledge. She ended up staying for 4 months.
They meet Edward Hopper and his wife, who rent a neighboring house. Six year old Valpy is loved by everyone as he seems older than his years, and is thoughtful and perceptive. Some of the other contenders are delightful, others are backstabbing. This trip was never written about or alluded to by Fitzgerald in her writing, but Kane did a lot of research, and includes emails to Kane from Valpy himself and also the daughter left behind in response to her questions.
Kane did a good job of uncovering as many facts as she could to write this story, but again, I failed to warm up to the fictional Fitzgerald, any more that I did the real author.
This book was fascinating in many ways because of it's premise. Two elderly spinster sisters with a vague family connection wanted to get to know her son who might be in line for an inheritance. She left her husband and 2 year old daughter behind in England to go Mexico, but discovered when she got there that it was an audition of sorts, with at least 10 others vying for the same inheritance. The old house is Gothic, the sisters are strange, and the only one in the house who knows what's going on is the cook and housekeeper, who seems to have magical powers and knowledge. She ended up staying for 4 months.
They meet Edward Hopper and his wife, who rent a neighboring house. Six year old Valpy is loved by everyone as he seems older than his years, and is thoughtful and perceptive. Some of the other contenders are delightful, others are backstabbing. This trip was never written about or alluded to by Fitzgerald in her writing, but Kane did a lot of research, and includes emails to Kane from Valpy himself and also the daughter left behind in response to her questions.
Kane did a good job of uncovering as many facts as she could to write this story, but again, I failed to warm up to the fictional Fitzgerald, any more that I did the real author.
September 8, 2025
The Delaneys invite Penelope Fitzgerald and her son Valpy from England to Mirando, a faded estate in Fonseca, Mexico. They arrive by ship from Liverpool in 1952, greeted on the Day of the Dead with “whiskey marigolds,” an upright Bechstein played by Mr. Tuttle, and a parrot that shouts “Jaas-per” as if calling to itself across the garden. The hired boy echoes the cry, a comic duet of man and bird.
From the first pages Kane makes a theme of doubleness, writing that Fonseca meant “two cultures watching each other.” The visitors are amused and unsettled by rituals such as queso fundido, called “the dinner of revolutionaries,” and by the Rosca de reyes with a hidden prize that makes eating into a gamble. Penelope writes letters about Las Posadas and a nativity play so earnest it teeters into farce.
The texture of travel fills every scene: the boy tastes apple churros at the plaza, glimpses a suffering donkey at the market, and stares wide-eyed at a room filled with stuffed birds, “a museum of feathers that refused to fly.”
The plot moves in episodes that mark both family inheritance and cultural bewilderment. Ernest Delaney sends a postcard declaring, “Exits are the hardest part. I will never forget Fonseca.” Chela orchestrates meals as if hosting a revolution and the Doñas remind guests of vanished Irish relations while passing on heirlooms with stories attached. Valpy composes a letter explaining that the family once traveled instead to the Purcells in Saltillo, a sly metafictional twist that casts doubt on every recollection. The household plays music and serves liquor, yet an undertone of exhaustion courses through their gatherings.
Kane has a gift for detail, which are staged like a play where both actors and props threaten to desert their roles. The line “Fonseca means two cultures watching each other” applies equally to every exchange of glance, gesture, and story across tables where queso melts faster than alliances.
Reading this novel I thought often of Henry James, since Jessica Francis Kane thrives on the comedy and melancholy of cultural displacement. The English mother and son carry their habits like baggage, and Mexico greets them with both warmth and indifference. The book works as allegory for travel as performance, for hospitality as theater, and for memory as unreliable architect of family myth.
Its surprises accumulate: an apple churro becomes as memorable as a violin passage, a donkey at the market stares like an oracle, and a postcard from Ernest hangs over the tale as both farewell and curse. Kane’s style balances irony with elegance, giving each object and gesture the weight of metaphor.
The reader exits with a question mark rather than a period, for the story ends on thresholds that never close. Travel is inheritance, inheritance is theater, and theater is truth delivered with a crooked smile. I was truly hoping for a deeper, more exciting plot. I had fun, enjoyed the excellent writing, but felt, thought, and learned very little. 2.5 🌟
From the first pages Kane makes a theme of doubleness, writing that Fonseca meant “two cultures watching each other.” The visitors are amused and unsettled by rituals such as queso fundido, called “the dinner of revolutionaries,” and by the Rosca de reyes with a hidden prize that makes eating into a gamble. Penelope writes letters about Las Posadas and a nativity play so earnest it teeters into farce.
The texture of travel fills every scene: the boy tastes apple churros at the plaza, glimpses a suffering donkey at the market, and stares wide-eyed at a room filled with stuffed birds, “a museum of feathers that refused to fly.”
The plot moves in episodes that mark both family inheritance and cultural bewilderment. Ernest Delaney sends a postcard declaring, “Exits are the hardest part. I will never forget Fonseca.” Chela orchestrates meals as if hosting a revolution and the Doñas remind guests of vanished Irish relations while passing on heirlooms with stories attached. Valpy composes a letter explaining that the family once traveled instead to the Purcells in Saltillo, a sly metafictional twist that casts doubt on every recollection. The household plays music and serves liquor, yet an undertone of exhaustion courses through their gatherings.
Kane has a gift for detail, which are staged like a play where both actors and props threaten to desert their roles. The line “Fonseca means two cultures watching each other” applies equally to every exchange of glance, gesture, and story across tables where queso melts faster than alliances.
Reading this novel I thought often of Henry James, since Jessica Francis Kane thrives on the comedy and melancholy of cultural displacement. The English mother and son carry their habits like baggage, and Mexico greets them with both warmth and indifference. The book works as allegory for travel as performance, for hospitality as theater, and for memory as unreliable architect of family myth.
Its surprises accumulate: an apple churro becomes as memorable as a violin passage, a donkey at the market stares like an oracle, and a postcard from Ernest hangs over the tale as both farewell and curse. Kane’s style balances irony with elegance, giving each object and gesture the weight of metaphor.
The reader exits with a question mark rather than a period, for the story ends on thresholds that never close. Travel is inheritance, inheritance is theater, and theater is truth delivered with a crooked smile. I was truly hoping for a deeper, more exciting plot. I had fun, enjoyed the excellent writing, but felt, thought, and learned very little. 2.5 🌟
December 23, 2025
Fonseca is fiction about a real episode from the life of acclaimed English author Penelope Fitzgerald. It is set in winter 1952 in northern Mexico, twenty years before Fitzgerald published her first novel, at a time when her husband was struggling with alcoholism, their literary journal was about to collapse, and she was pregnant with their third child. She receives a letter from two elderly Delaney sisters, distant relations who are looking for an heir to their estate. When she and her young son arrive at the Delaney manor, they find themselves competing with others for the Delaney inheritance.
This book depicts an period that helped shape Fitzgerald's writing style. It includes letters from her children, who corresponded with Kane the creation of this novel. I particularly enjoyed the humor provided by the quirky household setting and the eccentric cast of characters. It is quiet and reflective, the type of book that generally appeals to me. Recommended to Fitzgerald’s fans, as well as those who enjoy biographical fiction, depictions of motherhood, and stories about the artistic process.
This book depicts an period that helped shape Fitzgerald's writing style. It includes letters from her children, who corresponded with Kane the creation of this novel. I particularly enjoyed the humor provided by the quirky household setting and the eccentric cast of characters. It is quiet and reflective, the type of book that generally appeals to me. Recommended to Fitzgerald’s fans, as well as those who enjoy biographical fiction, depictions of motherhood, and stories about the artistic process.
March 6, 2025
I loved this novel. The author perfectly captures Mexico in the 1950's. The story is about the writer Penelope Fitzgerald"s trip to Mexico with her six year old son Valpy. In deep financial trouble she hopes to receive a legacy from two old women who are without an heir and curiously invite Fitzgerald to Fonseca Mexico. The trip is a desperate act, pregnant, she leaves behind her three year old daughter and alcoholic husband.
There is a cast of interesting characters, some with an eye on the legacy others are workers and members of the community. The artist Edward Hooper and his wife Jo have a cameo.
The characters are wonderful and the structure is interesting with letters written by Fitzgerald's children punctuating the engaging story.
Highly recommended!
Many thanks to Netgalley for providing me with an advance copy.
There is a cast of interesting characters, some with an eye on the legacy others are workers and members of the community. The artist Edward Hooper and his wife Jo have a cameo.
The characters are wonderful and the structure is interesting with letters written by Fitzgerald's children punctuating the engaging story.
Highly recommended!
Many thanks to Netgalley for providing me with an advance copy.
August 17, 2025
In 1952, Penelope Fitzgerald was experiencing hard times. She was overwhelmed with domestic duties, pregnant with her third young child, burdened by an alcoholic husband suffering from what we now call PTSD, and shepherding an ailing literary magazine on the verge of financial collapse. One can certainly understand why she may have needed a temporary change of scene. With her young son in tow, she left her home, husband and infant daughter for the tiny Mexican village of Saltillo. She spent 3 months there but never wrote much about the whys and wherefores of the visit. Building on the relevant scraps left behind by Fitzgerald, Kane reimagines her sanctuary as a magical oasis she facetiously renames Fonseca, a term roughly translated as “dry well.”
The plot involves a couple of wealthy dowagers who may have had some obscure relationship to Penelope. So why not take a vacation from her troubles in England and see if there might be a legacy in Mexico? Instead of money, what she finds there is a magical and life altering experience. The place is a dilapidated manse called Mirando and the dowagers are a couple of alcoholic and excentric seniors who appear to be dangling their silver mining fortune in front of just about everyone in their village. They entertain the “pretenders” with a daily drink-fest. Penelope lists the members of this eclectic group of fortune seekers by their potential uses for the money. Along with the unconventional competition, she finds romance, friendship (some nastiness), and especially a new self-image as an author. Moreover, her son blossoms in this totally new environment. He experiences a new language, newfound freedom and a strange new religion at the hands of the household help, the nuns at his school and the neighborhood boys.
Much like her protagonist, Kane writes with delicacy about religion, class and human foibles. You will find FONSECA satisfying if you like character-driven stories, literary history, and atmospherics. However, you should be open to a sedate pace. Slow down and savor the subtleties. Kane is an astute observer of her setting and characters, especially her protagonist. Her intention is to blend the genres of fiction, history and biography, which she achieves remarkably well.
The plot involves a couple of wealthy dowagers who may have had some obscure relationship to Penelope. So why not take a vacation from her troubles in England and see if there might be a legacy in Mexico? Instead of money, what she finds there is a magical and life altering experience. The place is a dilapidated manse called Mirando and the dowagers are a couple of alcoholic and excentric seniors who appear to be dangling their silver mining fortune in front of just about everyone in their village. They entertain the “pretenders” with a daily drink-fest. Penelope lists the members of this eclectic group of fortune seekers by their potential uses for the money. Along with the unconventional competition, she finds romance, friendship (some nastiness), and especially a new self-image as an author. Moreover, her son blossoms in this totally new environment. He experiences a new language, newfound freedom and a strange new religion at the hands of the household help, the nuns at his school and the neighborhood boys.
Much like her protagonist, Kane writes with delicacy about religion, class and human foibles. You will find FONSECA satisfying if you like character-driven stories, literary history, and atmospherics. However, you should be open to a sedate pace. Slow down and savor the subtleties. Kane is an astute observer of her setting and characters, especially her protagonist. Her intention is to blend the genres of fiction, history and biography, which she achieves remarkably well.
March 9, 2025
Thanks to Netgalley and Penguin Press for the ebook. A wonderful novel about the author Penelope Fitzgerald, set in a small town in Mexico in 1952, when she and her husband were running a struggling literary magazine back home. Penelope has come with her young son, Valpy, two see if two older women, with a slight connection to Penelope, might want to give her son part of their fortune. She makes the difficult trip from England, only to find that there are several other people vying for this money. There’s even the appearance of Edward Hopper and his wife staying nearby. A fun tale of saints and vipers who orbit this small world.
October 4, 2025
Valpy was king for a day.
August 26, 2025
Penelope Fitzgerald takes her son, Valpy, from the UK to Northern Mexico, to a secret location that doesn’t exist on a map. Fonseca is the home of two wealthy, elderly, and single women, the Delaney sisters. The women constantly host extravagant dinners, which friends and acquaintances happily attend because of the social scene and flowing booze; more pertinently, the question regarding who inherits the Delaney women’s money keeps the folks around. Fitzgerald lives on the Delaney property for this reason: their family faces financial trouble, and receiving monetary help could save them from ruin. Throughout the novel, the author inserts her correspondence with the adult Fitzgerald children, and these letters briefly offer a different narrator’s perspective from Penelope’s main storytelling during their stay in Mexico.
I appreciate Kane’s imaginative goal in theory, but I never quite immersed myself in the story. The details about wingback chairs, for example, seemed to lean more heavily on the telling side of writing. I wondered whether my general preference for non-historical fiction books affects my reading, and it could be true. However, I wanted to know Fitzgerald and Valpy better, rather than their financial troubles as such.
My thanks to Penguin Press and NetGalley for an ARC.
I appreciate Kane’s imaginative goal in theory, but I never quite immersed myself in the story. The details about wingback chairs, for example, seemed to lean more heavily on the telling side of writing. I wondered whether my general preference for non-historical fiction books affects my reading, and it could be true. However, I wanted to know Fitzgerald and Valpy better, rather than their financial troubles as such.
My thanks to Penguin Press and NetGalley for an ARC.
August 22, 2025
Book Report: Fonseca
4.5 ⭐️
At First Glance: I have to admit… the cover got me. Stunning!
The Gist: 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.
My Thoughts: I feel like I’m letting the literary gods down when I say my knowledge of Penelope Fitzgerald stems from a Parnassus Friday New to You reel and now Fonseca by Jessica Francis Kane, who upon finishing is now on my radar to read more from. Fonseca was a beautiful, immersive read that will transport you to a quirky household filled with others vying for an inheritance, endless evenings with cocktails and an unexpected charming heir. From the elderly ladies, the staff and Penelope’s exploration of the town and local customs this book captured my attention. The authors note is not to be missed, letting the reader know that real letters from Fitzgeralds children were slotted throughout the book.
A question for Jessica: To a Penelope Fitzgerald newbie where should I start?…or what’s your favorite?
Thank you Penguin Press for sending me a copy!
Follow me on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/Lyon.brit.A...
4.5 ⭐️
At First Glance: I have to admit… the cover got me. Stunning!
The Gist: 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.
My Thoughts: I feel like I’m letting the literary gods down when I say my knowledge of Penelope Fitzgerald stems from a Parnassus Friday New to You reel and now Fonseca by Jessica Francis Kane, who upon finishing is now on my radar to read more from. Fonseca was a beautiful, immersive read that will transport you to a quirky household filled with others vying for an inheritance, endless evenings with cocktails and an unexpected charming heir. From the elderly ladies, the staff and Penelope’s exploration of the town and local customs this book captured my attention. The authors note is not to be missed, letting the reader know that real letters from Fitzgeralds children were slotted throughout the book.
A question for Jessica: To a Penelope Fitzgerald newbie where should I start?…or what’s your favorite?
Thank you Penguin Press for sending me a copy!
Follow me on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/Lyon.brit.A...
October 3, 2025
I really enjoyed the writing style and I love a book where nothing really happens lol
October 11, 2025
i wish i was chela’s valpy
December 28, 2025
4.25 This novel has colorful characters that are painted for you with peculiar conversations and often odd circumstances that breeze along but somehow all makes sense in the end. Wonderful sense of place and of this time period. I felt the story was allegorical with much symbolism, superstition and details of religious and cultural traditions.
September 29, 2025
I loved this novel. Jessica Francis Kane is a wonderful writer and tells this story of Penelope Fitzgerald’s trip to Mexico with her young son beautifully.
February 15, 2025
This was a wonderful read. Kane wrote this in a way that I haven't read before and I really enjoyed it. Mixing in tidbits of letters from the subjects children and comparing them to the novelization was wonderful! I look forward to picking up a finished copy when it comes out in August!
November 5, 2025
4.5 🌟 What a powerful yet quiet odd little book! The writing was beautiful- spare yet thoroughly descriptive and the concept is so interesting! Based on real life writer Penelope Fitzgerald, the author fictionalizes a real life excursion Penelope undertook with her son Valpy to Mexico. Invited by two elderly ladies looking for an heir to their family’s silver mine fortune, Penelope and Valpy leave behind England and Tina, Penelope’s 2 year old daughter in the care of her MIL and Desmond, her drunkard husband in charge of their struggling magazine, in order to pursue a possible fortune. The Fitzgerald are poor and on the precipice of true stark poverty, and Penelope is pregnant either their 3rd child.
Valpy and Penelope stay with the Delaneys in Fonseca and mingle with an unexpected group of other “contestants” for the fortune. Chela, who rules and runs the household, along with Jesus, the gardener and general caretaker, look after and love sweet Valpy. Cheka is an undersong heroine- I loved her.
There isn’t a lot of plot yet so much happens in this Mexican home. Interspersed with true actual letters from adult Tina and Valpy (read the author’s note to understand who they are written to), the story imagines what really happened during this 3 month trip. There are appearances by famed artist Edward Hopper and his wife Jo, giving insight into their marriage.
I am intrigued by Penelope Fitzgerald as she was portrayed as a very intelligent, forward thinking woman, who struggled enormously with poverty while raising her children. I am not sure I liked her very much - she is definitely flawed but her perseverance and “served cold” style love for her family is admirable.
There are so many sentences that just took my breath away. “…exits are the most difficult parts of life”. Yes! “The ability to retreat to a mother’s house to literally recover your senses seemed like the most magical thing she’d seen.” Ahh how as a mother I would hope my kid’s would feel this way!
“Experienced aren’t given us to be got over; otherwise they would hardly be experiences. Courage and endurance are useless if they are never tested.”
This book isn’t for everyone but it speaks to the human experience - what people will do for money, the divide between people who have money and those who do not, relationships are complicated and marriages even more so, people are flawed, art is to be valued.
I’m so glad to have heard about this underrated gem through Get Booked with Larry in a recent (September?) patron only Fully Booked episode with Amy Allen Clark from The Bookgang Podcast. This book released this year with little fanfare which is undeserved! That podcast is an underrated gem itself and their Fully Booked monthly episodes are well worth the price of supporting the show!!
Valpy and Penelope stay with the Delaneys in Fonseca and mingle with an unexpected group of other “contestants” for the fortune. Chela, who rules and runs the household, along with Jesus, the gardener and general caretaker, look after and love sweet Valpy. Cheka is an undersong heroine- I loved her.
There isn’t a lot of plot yet so much happens in this Mexican home. Interspersed with true actual letters from adult Tina and Valpy (read the author’s note to understand who they are written to), the story imagines what really happened during this 3 month trip. There are appearances by famed artist Edward Hopper and his wife Jo, giving insight into their marriage.
I am intrigued by Penelope Fitzgerald as she was portrayed as a very intelligent, forward thinking woman, who struggled enormously with poverty while raising her children. I am not sure I liked her very much - she is definitely flawed but her perseverance and “served cold” style love for her family is admirable.
There are so many sentences that just took my breath away. “…exits are the most difficult parts of life”. Yes! “The ability to retreat to a mother’s house to literally recover your senses seemed like the most magical thing she’d seen.” Ahh how as a mother I would hope my kid’s would feel this way!
“Experienced aren’t given us to be got over; otherwise they would hardly be experiences. Courage and endurance are useless if they are never tested.”
This book isn’t for everyone but it speaks to the human experience - what people will do for money, the divide between people who have money and those who do not, relationships are complicated and marriages even more so, people are flawed, art is to be valued.
I’m so glad to have heard about this underrated gem through Get Booked with Larry in a recent (September?) patron only Fully Booked episode with Amy Allen Clark from The Bookgang Podcast. This book released this year with little fanfare which is undeserved! That podcast is an underrated gem itself and their Fully Booked monthly episodes are well worth the price of supporting the show!!
December 5, 2025
Earlier this year I read Kim Fay’s “Kate & Frida”, which introduced me to some mid 20th century female writers I’d never read. It was a highlight of my summer to read Muriel Spark, Penelope Lively, and Laurie Colwin for the first time. I picked up Fonseca without knowing a thing about it, and couldn’t believe my luck in being introduced to yet another writer from this era. Penelope Fitzgerald.
This is a fictionalized version of a story Fitzgerald started to write herself, but for some reason never did. As a young pregnant mother, she left her husband to run their literary journal at home and took her 6 year old son on a journey from England to Mexico (not an easy trip in 1952) in the hopes of gaining an inheritance from a very distant relative. She arrived to find a house full of other hopefuls who all believed they had a claim to the money. The setting is exquisite and the cast of characters that includes artist Edward Hopper and his artist wife Jo is entertaining and quirky. I really enjoyed this story and all of its layers.
This is a fictionalized version of a story Fitzgerald started to write herself, but for some reason never did. As a young pregnant mother, she left her husband to run their literary journal at home and took her 6 year old son on a journey from England to Mexico (not an easy trip in 1952) in the hopes of gaining an inheritance from a very distant relative. She arrived to find a house full of other hopefuls who all believed they had a claim to the money. The setting is exquisite and the cast of characters that includes artist Edward Hopper and his artist wife Jo is entertaining and quirky. I really enjoyed this story and all of its layers.
December 23, 2025
4.5 stars and rounding up because this is my favorite kind of book. Loosely based on the writer Penelope Fitzgerald's trip to a rural village in Mexico in 1952, this novel has a quiet tone, vivid characters, and beautiful writing that takes you to that time and place.
December 4, 2025
I kept listening thinking that something interesting would happen. With only an hour until the end, I decided that I might as well finish it.
December 26, 2025
This novel is flawless. I’m happy I didn’t realize it was based on the author Penelope Fitzgerald (I know. Silly me) because I was able to live completely in that moment in time. It felt like a vacation from the 21st century and from the US. I was transported to 1952 in Mexico with this menagerie of characters, rich aromas, vivid colors. It’s a beautiful book that savors each moment. What a special gift.
January 3, 2026
I had not heard of Penelope Fitzgerald before reading this novel. According to the "Author's Note" at the end of this book, Fitzgerald published her first book in 1977 at age 60 and went on to publish 8 other novels before her death in 2000. That alone is remarkable, but this novel by Jessica Francis Kane is a lovely re-imagining of a trip Mrs. Fitzgerald took with her then 5-year-old son, Valpy, to Mexico in 1953. What follows is a beautifully rendered character study rich in Mexican-Catholic culture. The details are perfectly understated but just enough to capture a painterly sense of place. What a lovely book to start the new year!
January 17, 2026
It is deeply satisfying to read a book whose language has been labored over by an author—to know that another brain thought carefully, carefully about each word, placed it in that very sentence in that very order, with purpose. I love to read a sentence and know that on the other side of it—not like a fence, but like a painting—were scenes and sequences of enormous effort and care and artistry.
August 18, 2025
I’d give the audio narration 10 stars if I could.
January 13, 2026
Every January, the exploratory trial of fiction decides if there will be more for the year, and this was a winner. It takes you all over, a bit like Jackson, Patchett, and Hemingway + dryly funny in places. Quite a lineup of figures, from salt of the earth to roughed in background characters to fully obnoxious.
September 27, 2025
I love an historical fiction novel with a bit of mystery and the inclusion of some famous characters. Like a painting, Fonseca is a snapshot of a moment in the life of novelist Penelope Fitzgerald. It is a portrait of a time of struggle and Fitzgerald’s desire to lift her family out of poverty and the destructive path they are on. I loved the inclusion of Edward and Jo Hopper, and the elusiveness of Fonseca (the place) itself. So much to unpack here. Great for lovers of historical fiction and a character-driven narrative.
September 3, 2025
In 1952, Penelope makes an onerous journey from England to Mexico with her six-year-old son, leaving behind her husband and small daughter for an unknown number of months, in hopes that this extreme venture will pay off financially. Penelope and young Valpy have been invited to Mexico by two elderly widows with a distant connection to her family who suggest that perhaps they will leave their considerable fortune to the boy. With the money, Penelope and her husband could escape a life of poverty, continue funding the prestigious yet struggling literary magazine they edit together, and perhaps stop him drinking away their meager income. When Penelope and Valpy arrive in Fonseca, they discover the widows are also heavy drinkers who show little interest in their invited guests. The mansion is filled with a motley collection of other visitors, all apparently there attempting to win the inheritance for themselves.
I loved reading this story of a character who finds herself in a strange situation and observes it with a writer's eye. Kane conveys Penelope's perspective with a wonderful dry humor and crafts a compelling drama among the characters thrown together in Fonseca. What adds a fascinating layer to the novel is that it's based on truth: Penelope Fitzgerald was a real, acclaimed writer, and she actually made this trip to Mexico with her son, though the circumstances surrounding it are unclear, even to the family. Kane started with details from a 1980 Fitzgerald essay that alludes to the trip, and Fitzgerald's children provided some additional insights, but most of the novel is delightfully imagined fiction. I wasn't familiar with Penelope Fitzgerald before this, but I'll be checking out her work now, and I'll continue looking forward to Kane's stories.
I loved reading this story of a character who finds herself in a strange situation and observes it with a writer's eye. Kane conveys Penelope's perspective with a wonderful dry humor and crafts a compelling drama among the characters thrown together in Fonseca. What adds a fascinating layer to the novel is that it's based on truth: Penelope Fitzgerald was a real, acclaimed writer, and she actually made this trip to Mexico with her son, though the circumstances surrounding it are unclear, even to the family. Kane started with details from a 1980 Fitzgerald essay that alludes to the trip, and Fitzgerald's children provided some additional insights, but most of the novel is delightfully imagined fiction. I wasn't familiar with Penelope Fitzgerald before this, but I'll be checking out her work now, and I'll continue looking forward to Kane's stories.
October 20, 2025
"I'm reminded of that old idea that there are only two kinds of stories: someone goes on a journey and a stranger comes to town. It seems you are living both. How remarkable."
This was such an entertaining and beguiling book, and I really enjoyed it! I've read a few books by Penelope Fitzgerald (my favorite is Innocence <3) and I find her life story and the various insane things that happened to her in her life to be quite interesting, so it was very cool to be able to read a fictional book about a missing episode from her life that would have made a great novel yet never seemed to make it into the pages of any of Fitzgerald's books. I really liked Kane's inclusion of her real emails/letters from Fitzgerald's two children in the book, which provides a clear contrast between the truth of this situation, the fiction, and the what might-have-been, which is what most of this story is. It's a fascinating exploration of the plight of the historian or biographer, which is never being able to really know the truth about your subject, but needing to be okay with it because there's no alternative! I also loved the inclusion of Edward Hopper and his wife in this book (they were in the same town in Mexico at the same time as Fitzgerald, and there's no proof that they ever met, but that doesn't mean it didn't happen :)), and Chela and Valpy were my favorite characters in the book <3
I really enjoyed this "treasure hunt that became a mystery that turned into a love story"!
(4.5 stars)
This was such an entertaining and beguiling book, and I really enjoyed it! I've read a few books by Penelope Fitzgerald (my favorite is Innocence <3) and I find her life story and the various insane things that happened to her in her life to be quite interesting, so it was very cool to be able to read a fictional book about a missing episode from her life that would have made a great novel yet never seemed to make it into the pages of any of Fitzgerald's books. I really liked Kane's inclusion of her real emails/letters from Fitzgerald's two children in the book, which provides a clear contrast between the truth of this situation, the fiction, and the what might-have-been, which is what most of this story is. It's a fascinating exploration of the plight of the historian or biographer, which is never being able to really know the truth about your subject, but needing to be okay with it because there's no alternative! I also loved the inclusion of Edward Hopper and his wife in this book (they were in the same town in Mexico at the same time as Fitzgerald, and there's no proof that they ever met, but that doesn't mean it didn't happen :)), and Chela and Valpy were my favorite characters in the book <3
I really enjoyed this "treasure hunt that became a mystery that turned into a love story"!
(4.5 stars)
August 11, 2025
4.5 stars
Fonseca is a weird and wonderful novel filling in fictional gaps from a real life trip taken by Penelope Fitzgerald to Mexico in the 1950s.
What I loved most about this book was the witty writing. I laughed out loud at several moments, which I never normally do. Whether it's because the author has read and loved Fitzgerald's works for years, or because she's an excellent writer (a mix of the two I think), Penelope and Valpy appeared so real and multi-dimensional. I found myself thinking of the book when I wasn't reading it.
While fictionalised, I thought the inclusion of the Hoppers was genius. I can imagine it's a huge task to take real lives and fictionalise sections of them, but I can see this was done with care and sincerity. I thought it was interesting to include real letters from Penelope's children sent to the author, and maybe knowing they approved of the book allowed me to enjoy it all the more.
*thank you to NetGalley and Penguin Press for the arc
Fonseca is a weird and wonderful novel filling in fictional gaps from a real life trip taken by Penelope Fitzgerald to Mexico in the 1950s.
What I loved most about this book was the witty writing. I laughed out loud at several moments, which I never normally do. Whether it's because the author has read and loved Fitzgerald's works for years, or because she's an excellent writer (a mix of the two I think), Penelope and Valpy appeared so real and multi-dimensional. I found myself thinking of the book when I wasn't reading it.
While fictionalised, I thought the inclusion of the Hoppers was genius. I can imagine it's a huge task to take real lives and fictionalise sections of them, but I can see this was done with care and sincerity. I thought it was interesting to include real letters from Penelope's children sent to the author, and maybe knowing they approved of the book allowed me to enjoy it all the more.
*thank you to NetGalley and Penguin Press for the arc
January 8, 2026
When I first started this, I thought, “Oooh, Mexican Gothic! My favorite jam!” But then it turned out to be a fictional/true story that, yes, was set in Mexico and had definite goth vibes. But I’m ashamed to admit that it took half the book until I twigged as to what was really going on.
So let’s start at the beginning. The year is 1952. Penelope is a young wife and mother with two children and another on the way. She and her husband are struggling to keep their literary journal going, and now it looks like the husband has some drinking issues. Out of the blue, she receives a letter from two elderly sisters by the name of Delaney, which happens to be her maiden name. They are invited to join the other possible inheritors of the spoils of their family’s silver mine, located near the town of Fonsca, Mexico. The sisters are elderly and it looks as if the inheritance is up for grabs. Desperate for some cash, she grabs her older son and books it out of New York to scope out the situation.
What she finds is not at all what she had expected. Doña Elena and Doña Anita (actually sister-in-law) are the queens of their domain, and Penelope has just unwittingly joined their court at Mirando. Mandatory cocktails of an astonishing variety are served in their daily evening salon, and it’s a wonder there is any inheritance at the rate these two are going at it. Others join the soiree, like Edward Hopper and his wife Jo, and then there is a new guest, the Delaney. Imposter? True descendant? Who knows.
Spoiler alert, this was no fictional account. Penelope was actually the writer Penelope Fitzgerald, who wrote her first novel in 1977 when she was 60 years old, and went on to write eight more. Only the name of the town, Fonseca AKA Saltillo, was changed to protect the innocent.
What a trip.
So let’s start at the beginning. The year is 1952. Penelope is a young wife and mother with two children and another on the way. She and her husband are struggling to keep their literary journal going, and now it looks like the husband has some drinking issues. Out of the blue, she receives a letter from two elderly sisters by the name of Delaney, which happens to be her maiden name. They are invited to join the other possible inheritors of the spoils of their family’s silver mine, located near the town of Fonsca, Mexico. The sisters are elderly and it looks as if the inheritance is up for grabs. Desperate for some cash, she grabs her older son and books it out of New York to scope out the situation.
What she finds is not at all what she had expected. Doña Elena and Doña Anita (actually sister-in-law) are the queens of their domain, and Penelope has just unwittingly joined their court at Mirando. Mandatory cocktails of an astonishing variety are served in their daily evening salon, and it’s a wonder there is any inheritance at the rate these two are going at it. Others join the soiree, like Edward Hopper and his wife Jo, and then there is a new guest, the Delaney. Imposter? True descendant? Who knows.
Spoiler alert, this was no fictional account. Penelope was actually the writer Penelope Fitzgerald, who wrote her first novel in 1977 when she was 60 years old, and went on to write eight more. Only the name of the town, Fonseca AKA Saltillo, was changed to protect the innocent.
What a trip.
October 10, 2025
The perfect book for me! Literary fiction at its best, researched and carefully written to reveal Penelope Fitzgerald to a whole new generation of readers. Now I want to read her whole canon! Kane got inside Fitzgerald, and even got permission from her literary executors to print letters exchanged with her children. The novel seeks to clarify Fitzgerald's trip to Mexico while pregnant, taking one child with her and leaving one behind, in search of a legacy to save the couple's literary journal and their house and the husband from alcoholic ruin. The story is told through Fitzgerald's POV, but the star of the story is Valpy, her brave young son who realizes the importance of the trip, and valiantly tries to save the family with found fortune.
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