Service95 Recommends is the home of the books we love and reviews from our contributors. Held by Anne Michaels follows John’s invalid from WW1 as he tries to build the life he had lost.
What We Say: “Held opens with the line: ‘We know life is finite. Why should we believe death lasts forever?’ And so begins a series of dream-like fragments, each paragraph as carefully shaped and beautifully considered as Michael’s poetry. Held is a story of love and loyalty across generations, that starts on a French battlefield in 1917 and ends in the Gulf of Finland in 2025. Locations shift and time runs back and forth in this fragmentary tale of love, memory and time. Longlisted for the 2024 Booker Prize” – Maria Padget
What They Say: A cleverly fragmentary tale of love, memory and time from the author of Fugitive Pieces shuffles the hopes and dreams of four generations ... Michaels demonstrates that fugitive pieces can make up a structure as strong and as meaningful as a finished monument ... Michaels’s intellectual toughness coexists with a tender heart ... Exceptionally open to the beauty of science’ – Lucy Hughes Hallett
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