The Holding

Merilyn Simonds

ISBN 10: 0771080654 / ISBN 13: 9780771080654

Published by McClelland & Stewart, 2004

Used book that is in excellent condition. May show signs of wear or have minor defects. Seller Inventory # 3462484-6

Synopsis:

New York Times Editor's Choice

Alyson Thomson has left the city for an abandoned farm in the Madawaska hills of Ontario, with Walker, a potter. There, they live a life of artistic and emotional independence, until eventually the isolation brings to the fore tensions and conflicts within the relationship. After a tragedy enters Alyson’s life, she uncovers, in the ruins of a decrepit log cabin, the hidden writings of a young woman who lived on their land more than a hundred years before. As Alyson reads the harrowing tale of Margaret MacBayne, who left behind hardship in a Scottish seacoast town for the Canadian bush in 1859 with the hope of building a new life, she finds Margaret’s story comes to parallel her own in disturbing and unpredictable ways. A brilliant illumination of the lives of two women who occupy the same place a century apart, The Holding reveals the things we keep most guarded, whose truths often lie in unexpected places.

About the Author: Merilyn Simonds was born in Winnipeg, Manitoba, and spent her childhood in Brazil. Her books include The Holding (2004), the internationally acclaimed short story collection The Lion in the Room Next Door (1999), and The Convict Lover (non-fiction, 1996), which was a finalist for the Governor General’s Award and the Arthur Ellis Award, and won the TORGI Award. The Convict Lover premiered as a stage play at Toronto’s Theatre Passe Muraille in 1998.

Simonds has worked as a freelance writer and a magazine editor, has taught courses in literary non-fiction, and has been a guest lecturer at colleges and universities in the U. S. and Canada. She has won several national awards for her magazine writing.

She lives outside Kingston, Ontario, with her husband, writer and translator Wayne Grady.


From the Trade Paperback edition.

Bibliographic Details

Title: The Holding
Publisher: McClelland & Stewart
Publication Date: 2004
Binding: Hardcover
Condition: Very Good
Edition: First Edition.