Review: "Solstice" by Carol Gilligan

Solstice by Carol Gilligan
Published August 2026 via Random House
★★★★

Two people come together, and fall apart, and come together again. It's a push-pull relationship: Eve and Gabe have a happy marriage, three children, a partnership. They've been together long enough that sometimes their attention strays. But sometimes the rules change, or maybe the consequences, and so Eve finds herself alone in Amsterdam, choreographing a ballet and wondering what comes next.

Gilligan is best known for her feminist theory, and although I haven't read In a Different Voice, I've run across it enough times to be intrigued when I saw that Gilligan has turned to fiction. (Also, not to be shallow about it, but that cover!)

The book is functionally historical fiction, though it covers some world events that are, ah, extremely timely. What interests me most is the way the scenes are set up—there's often a significant time jump between scenes, so even if Eve is having (for example) a fairly intense or upsetting conversation in one scene, by the next scene things have moved on.

In places it gets a bit...I was going to say "theoretical", but I think "abstract" is more accurate. For my tastes, anyway—there's always a sweet spot of enough bridges to keep connections clear but not so many that readers feel talked down to; I think in places a bridge or two would have been helpful to me. (Though, too: Not everything has to be related!)

3.5 stars and some food for thought.

Thanks to the author and publisher for inviting me to read a review copy through NetGalley.