Held by Anne Michaels

This was short listed for the 2024 Booker Prize, and as so often happens to me, I like some of the books that were long listed better than those that make the cut. To be fair, I am pretty sure there is beauty here that I just did not get--it is written by a poet, and that is very evident in the structure and cadence of the book. I am just not someone who much appreciates poetry--my spouse and I have put it on our list of things to do when we retire, but at this point, we still work full time. The scenes in the book loop back and forwards from 1902 through to 2025. Locations shift from a battlefield in first world war France to North Yorkshire, London, Belarus and various war zones. John was grievously wounded in the first world war. Alan is a war photographer. His partner, Mara, is a nurse in a field hospital. Her father, Peter, makes exquisite hats. Sometimes, the reader is able to understand how these characters and their stories connect but often the links are not explicit, and often, I struggled to find the common thread. As you would expect from a poet, it is lyrical and flows nicely, but it just was not story telling that resonates with me.