
Held
A Novel
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Narrated by:
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Anne Michaels
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By:
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Anne Michaels
WINNER OF THE GILLER PRIZE • SHORTLISTED FOR THE BOOKER PRIZE • A NEW YORK TIMES BEST HISTORICAL NOVEL OF THE YEAR • A breathtaking and ineffable new novel from the author of the international bestsellers Fugitive Pieces and The Winter Vault—a novel of love and loyalty across generations, at once sweeping and intimate
1917. On a battlefield near the River Escaut, John lies in the aftermath of a blast, unable to move or feel his legs. Struggling to focus his thoughts, he is lost to memory as the snow falls—a chance encounter in a pub by a railway, a hot bath with his lover on a winter night.
1920. John has returned from war to North Yorkshire, near a different river. He is alive but still not whole. Reunited with Helena, an artist, he reopens his photography business and tries to keep on living. But the past erupts insistently into the present, as ghosts begin to surface in his pictures: ghosts with messages he cannot understand.
So begins a narrative that spans four generations of connections and consequences that ignite and reignite as the century unfolds. In radiant moments of desire, comprehension, longing, and transcendence, the sparks fly upward, working their transformations decades later.
Held is affecting and intensely beautiful, full of mystery, wisdom, and compassion, a novel by a writer at the height of her powers.
©2024 Anne Michaels (P)2024 Random House AudioListeners also enjoyed...




















Critic reviews
Winner of the Prix Transfuge
Shortlisted for the Prix Femina Étranger
“Anne Michaels’s compelling novel, Held, couldn’t be more timely: war and its damages, passed through generations over a century. Through luminous moments of chance, change, and even grace, Michaels shows us our humanity—its depths and shadows.”—Margaret Atwood, via X
“Held may be one of the most romantic books I’ve ever read . . . Gorgeous . . . Surprisingly expansive . . . Hauntingly beautiful . . . The whole novel is spiked with little detonations of awe . . . Michaels publishes novels so deliberately that each one entrances readers of a new decade.”—Washington Post
“Michaels’s narrative glides gracefully back and forth in time . . . Each brief chapter is filled with deftly sketched characters . . . Throughout, these stories spark both poignant connections and provocative divergences.”—New York Times Book Review
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Poetry of the Heart
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Gorgeous storytelling- but missing the story
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Beautifully written
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Would give six stars if possible
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Poetic but not enough to keep my mind engaged while I walked and listened
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Love is foremost.
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Terribly monotonous voice
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P
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P.8
Damage to people done by warping check, ,
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Poetic, philosophical, and probably better read than heard
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