Urquart’s storytelling captures the haunting beauty and emotional complexity of Emer’s narrative. The use of poetic language and fragmented flashbacks creates a visceral connection to the characters’ trauma, making their suffering feel intimate yet universal. The image of the door—once a symbol of shelter and security—transformed into a makeshift gurney for Emer’s broken body is a masterstroke of symbolism. It underscores the fragility of safety and the brutal repurposing of the familiar in disaster’s wake, amplifying the tragedy of innocence shattered by forces beyond control.
What lingers most is the tension between the children’s “unblemished hope” and their grim reality. Their reliance on imagination as a lifeline—a defense against despair—adds layers of poignancy. It speaks to resilience but also to the cruel irony of youth clinging to optimism in a world that has already shown its capacity for devastation.
INSTANT NATIONAL BESTELLER • Longlisted for the 2024 Giller Prize • One of Indigo’s Most Anticipated Books • One of the CBC’s Canadian Fiction Books to Read in Fall 2024
From one of the greatest writers of our time comes a profound and moving novel of an unforgettable life.
In the early morning dark, Emer McConnell rises for a day of teaching music in the schools of rural Saskatchewan. While she travels the snowy roads in the gathering light, she begins another journey, one of recollection and introspection, and one that, through the course of Jane Urquhart’s brilliant new novel,…
My journey with Held was layered: slow-reveal artistry that demands patience and surrender. Initially, its fragmented, poetic style made it hard to find a tidy narrative thread—it was only after I listened to the audiobook, and in doing so, unlocked its cadence. The shift in medium with the authors rhythms and inflections, transformed the prose into something tactile, almost felt, like a cashmere blanket. What at first glance seemed disjointed on the page became, through Anne Michael's voice, a tapestry of truths woven across time. This book won Canada's top literary prize, The Giller. Had it not won, I might not have given the book a second go-around. It's a book I will return to.
SHORTLISTED FOR THE BOOKER PRIZE AND THE GILLER PRIZE • A breathtaking and ineffable new novel from the author of the international best sellers 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.
Ann-Marie MacDonald is one of North America's finest authors. Her remarkable research into the lives of a family living on the Fayne estate, straddling the border of Scotland and England in the late 1800s, will leave you in awe. This novel is a masterful blend of Victorian history, medicine, social barriers, and humor that will make you laugh out loud while keeping you captivated through 850 pages of unexpected twists and turns.
Fayne, a vast moated castle, lies to the misty southern border of Scotland, ruled by the Lord Henry Bell, Seventeenth Baron of the DC de Fayne, Peer of Her Majesty's Realm of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.
The mysterious Lord Bell keeps to his rooms by day, appearing briefly at night to dote over his beloved and peculiarly gifted child. But even with all her gifts - intelligence, wit and strength of character - can Charlotte overcome the violently strict boundaries of contemporary society and establish her own place in the world?
Set against the rural backdrop of 1980s Somerset, UK, this book explores themes of resilience, trauma, mentorship, and the lifelong repercussions of child sexual abuse. Told through the intersecting perspectives of best friends Ernie Castlefrank and Arthur W. Barnes—two young boys navigating survival in a world shaped by exploitation—and a town bookshop owner reckoning with her own childhood, the novel portrays the psychological toll of abuse and the fragile path to reclaiming agency.
As the story progresses, the abuse escalates to the shadowy realms of the darknet, mirroring real-world systems that perpetuate harm under a veil of secrecy. Praised for its raw emotional depth, strong characterization, and unflinching social commentary, it resonates with readers who appreciate the haunting trauma of other books.
