The Holding [Hardcover]

This book was just what I was looking for. As a woman, it is sometimes hard to find books about the 'realness' of women. This book is fabulous. Following the lives of two women who lived almost 150 years apart in time, it blends the right amount of history and human emotion. You relate to the characters: you admire their strengths , and you sympathize with their struggles. They are strong and independent, yet vulnerable and endearing. An excellent read. This is a book that I will keep and re-read --- just so I can go back and re-visit the characters. I very much look forward to Merilyn Simonds next book.

In Merilyn Simonds's debut novel, THE HOLDING, two women living on the same piece of land decades apart are faced with emotional and physical isolation, and find strength in self-reliance.

In the 1800s young Margaret MacBayne, along with her family, leaves her Scottish fishing village in hopes of taming the wilderness of Canada and finding prosperity and happiness. Margaret and her three brothers lose their father directly upon landing in the New World, and their mother dies in childbirth soon after. When her brothers depart for logging camps each winter, leaving Margaret alone in the Canadian bush, she must find the physical and emotional strength to survive. She does survive, flourishing with the help of a Native woman who befriends her, protects her and teaches her traditional herbalism. When her brothers bring home a man to help on the homestead, Margaret falls unexpectedly in love. Soon her happiness is destroyed by a tragic accident, and the MacBayne family is splintered forever.

In the late 1990s Alyson Thompson, pregnant and alone while her moody and mysterious partner Walker is working at a logging camp, also deals with tragedy and loss. While exploring her land, the former MacBayne holding, she finds the remains of Margaret's garden and cabin, and within it, Margaret's journal. Alyson, a creative gardener, connects with Margaret's loss and the work she loved. Unbeknownst to Walker and her best friend, Alyson begins to revive Margaret's long-dormant garden and finds it a healing enterprise. Still, she must confront difficult truths about Walker and their future together.

Simonds artfully moves back and forth between the two perspectives of Margaret and Alyson, and intertwines them well. The land is the first connection between the two, but Margaret and Alyson share much more than simple geography. Both are women alone, even while in the company of men. Each has to navigate the space from loneliness to solitude. And each woman thinks about revenge in attempts to right wrongs done against them.

THE HOLDING is a story about creativity and emotional resources in the face of sadness and loss. It is about the innate and awesome courage of women. It is also about the fragility and importance of female friendships, as well as the joys and pains of love.

Simonds's book is romantic, mysterious and atmospheric, and the almost abrupt ending lends to its potency. Beautifully written, THE HOLDING is a thoughtful and poignant first novel.

--- Reviewed by Sarah Rachel Egelman