Advanced
Error loading page.
Try refreshing the page. If that doesn't work, there may be a network issue, and you can use our self test page to see what's preventing the page from loading.
Learn more about possible network issues or contact support for more help.
Title details for The Winter Vault by Anne Michaels - Available

The Winter Vault

by Anne Michaels
Karen White
Audiobook
1 of 1 copy available
Borrow Listen to a sample Listen to a sample
1 of 1 copy available
In 1964, a newly married Canadian couple settle into a houseboat on the Nile just below Abu Simbel. Avery is one of the engineers responsible for the dismantling and reconstruction of the temple, a "machine-worshipper" who is nonetheless sensitive to their destructive power. Jean is a botanist by vocation, passionately interested in everything that grows. They met on the banks of the St. Lawrence River, witnessing the construction of the Seaway as it swallowed towns, homes, and lives. Now, at the edge of another world about to be inundated, they create their own world, exchanging "the innocent memories we don't know we hold until given the gift of the eagerness of another."


But when tragedy strikes, they return to separate lives in Toronto: Avery to school to study architecture; and Jean into the orbit of Lucjan, a Polish émigré artist whose haunting tales of occupied Warsaw pull her further from Avery but offer her the chance to assume her most essential life.


Stunning in its explorations of both the physical and emotional worlds of its characters, intensely moving and lyrical, The Winter Vault is a radiant work of fiction.

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Awards

  • Release date

    June 4, 2009

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Listen audiobook

      • ISBN: 9781400192458
      • File size: 299207 KB
      • Duration: 10:23:20

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • AudioFile Magazine
      Karen White highlights the lyrical writing in poet Anne Michaels's first novel. Set in Egypt in 1964, the story revolves around Avery and Jean, a Canadian engineer and his botanist wife, who are living on a houseboat as Avery helps manage the disassembly and reassembly of Abu Simbel temple before a dam is built. Avery is obsessed with his wife and with the raw power of his work--taking apart a massive temple; Jean is obsessed with the flood that will occur. Michaels has written a moody story of loss and renewal that often reads like prose poetry. White's narration honors the author's elegiac, romantic voice, while also lifting the narrative when, on occasion, it slows just a bit too much. A.C.S. (c) AudioFile 2010, Portland, Maine
    • Publisher's Weekly

      Starred review from March 2, 2009
      Profound loss, desolation and rebuilding are the literal and metaphoric themes of Michaels’s exquisite second novel (after Fugitive Pieces
      ). Avery Escher is a Canadian engineer recently moved to a houseboat on the Nile with his new wife, Jean, in 1964. Avery’s part of a team of engineers trying to salvage Abu Simbel, which is about to be flooded by the new Aswan dam. His wife, Jean, meanwhile, carries with her childhood memories of flooded villages and the heavy absence of her mother, who died when she was young. Now, the sight of the entire Nubian nation being evacuated from their native land before it’s flooded affects both Avery and Jean intensely. Jean’s pregnancy seems a possible redemption, but their daughter is stillborn, and Jean falls into despair, shunning the former intimacy of her marriage. When the couple returns to Canada, they set up separate lives and another man enters the picture. Michaels is especially impressive at making a rundown of construction materials or the contents of a market as evocative as the shared moments between two young lovers. A tender love story set against an intriguing bit of history is handled with uncommon skill.

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

subjects

Languages

  • English

Loading
Check out what's being checked out right now