Held is Anne Michaels' third novel in a little over 25 years, although she has produced poetry and other books during that time. She is best known for her first novel Fugitive Pieces, and Held was shortlisted for this year's Booker Prize. It's a story told in fragments, covering from 1908 to 2025, moving backwards and forwards through time, telling of the lives and losses of a number of, mostly, women with some familial connection. There are some real characters alongside the fictional, like Marie Curie and her associates. It's almost unbearably moving in parts, and tells of love, loss, tragedy and beauty. Similar to Michael Ondaatje at his best, Held is a masterful evocation of memory, and how the dead are always with us.