Hold Still
Description
When Maya Taylor, an English professor with a tendency to hide in her books, sends her daughter to Florida to look after a friend's child, she does so with the best of intentions; it's a chance for Ellie, twenty and spiraling, to rebuild her life. But in the sprawling hours of one humid afternoon, Ellie makes a mistake she cannot take back. In two separate timelines--before and after the catastrophe--Maya and Ellie must try to repair their fractured relationship and find a way to transcend not only their differences but also their more troubling similarities. "[Melding] psychological insight, precise plotting and limpid prose" (Huffington Post), Lynn Steger Strong traces the anatomy of a mistake and the weight of culpability. Hold Still marks a taut and propulsive debut that "builds to a perfect crescendo, an ending that is both surprising and true" (Marcy Dermansky, author of The Red Car).
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About the Author
Lynn Steger Strong is the author of Want and Hold Still. Her nonfiction has appeared in The New York Times, Time, Harper's Bazaar, Los Angeles Times, The Paris Review, The Cut, New York Magazine, and elsewhere. She teaches writing at Catapult and Columbia University.
Reviews
[An] assured, illuminating examination of the complex ties between mothers and daughters.--Gina Webb
Haunting...Strong's characters are achingly detailed, and undeniably real.
Ms. Strong has a highly sensitive awareness of the special kind of disappointment--and the painfully undying connection--that comes with family. There's mercifully little armchair psychology about Ellie and no blatantly obvious reason that she should be so damaged or careless. She just is, and in that way feels authentic.--John Williams
In this compelling debut, Lynn Steger Strong paints a portrait of familial love that is real, visceral, and all the more dangerous for being unconditional. Her characters show us that loving someone deeply can be a fraught act--and trying to gain distance from them, even more so.--Alexandra Kleeman, author of You Too Can Have a Body Like Mine
