JUST BOOKS’ PICK OF THE WEEK

The Winter Vault by Anne Michaels

Anne Michael’s new novel is a mesmerizing love story set in Canada and Egypt during the 1960s, with flashbacks to England and Poland during World War II. Avery, an engineer, and Jean, a botanist, newly married, have traveled to Egypt to save the Abu Simbel temple from the flooding of the new Ashwan dam. The two create a new world around themselves, as they watch the ancient world around them destroyed. After a tragedy occurs, they return to separate lives in Toronto. Jean meets Lucjan, a Polish artist who unburdens his memories of war-torn Warsaw to her, drawing her farther and farther away from Avery.

The Winter Vault paints very intimate moments of individual lives against the background of historical events, exploring the emotional as well as the physical worlds of its characters. Avery and Jean must learn to let go of the past and to move forward. This is a novel about life’s triumphs and failures, and the choice to remain broken or to heal. “Regret is not the end of the story; it is the middle of the story”.