The Winter Vault

Product Description 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 emigre 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. Review "Exquisite.... A tender love story set against an intriguing bit of history is handled with uncommon skill." ---Publishers Weekly Starred Review About the Author Anne Michaels is the author of the award-winning international bestseller Fugitive Pieces, now a major motion picture.Karen White has been narrating audiobooks since 1999, with more than two hundred to her credit. Honored to be included in AudioFile's Best Voices and Speaking of Audiobooks's Best Romance Audio 2012 and 2013, she is also an Audie Award finalist and has earned multiple AudioFile Earphones Awards. From AudioFile 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. © AudioFile 2010, Portland, Maine