HELD

Celebrated Canadian poet and novelist Anne Michaels has written an exquisite novel (shortlisted for the Booker Prize) that looks at love, loss, and human connection. Michaels's intimate delivery and empathetic tone serve her bittersweet and elegiac text well. Starting in 1917 with a battlefield explosion, her exploration of characters during troubled times spans a century and ends in the near future. This is a nonlinear philosophical story told in the elegant voice of a poet. The first sentence sets the stage, "We know life is finite; why should we believe death lasts forever?" This extraordinary novel plumbs the heart through vignettes of a photographer, a doctor, and a journalist in troubled places. It is a mesmerizing listen. A.D.M. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2024, Portland, Maine [Published: NOVEMBER 2024]