Hold Fast

Hold Fast is the widely acclaimed story of a young boy’s struggle to survive in a new environment and his fight against those who stand as threats to his pride in himself and his way of life. Michael turned fourteen in May. By June, both his parents are dead, victims of a car crash. And for Michael, who has lived all his life in a small Newfoundland outport community, this means being suddenly uprooted and sent to live with relatives in St. Albert, a city hundreds of miles away.

Hold Fast is the story of Michael's struggle to survive in his new world. In vivid, honest prose, it depicts his fight against those who stand to threaten him, his pride in himself and his way of life — the loud-mouthed Kentson who makes fun of the way he talks at school, and his uncle who tries to rule life at home with an iron hand. It is also the story of the friendship that develops between Michael and Curtis, his cousin, and of his new uncertain feelings for Brenda. The book was written, Kevin Major says, “out of love for a way of life and a people. It is an appeal for us Newfoundlanders to be like certain of the species of seaweed that inhabit our shores, which, when faced with the threat of being destroyed by forces they cannot control, evolve an appendage to hold them to the rocks, a holdfast.”

Kevin Major is one of the best Canadian writers of his generation, and in 1992 he won the Vicky Metcalf Award for a Body of Work. He has written ten novels, many of which have been translated into other languages. His books include Hold Fast (Hans Christian Andersen Honor List, winner of the Governor General's Literary Award, the Canadian Library Association Award and the Ruth Schwartz Award), Far from Shore (winner of the Canadian Young Adult Book Award), and The House of Wooden Santas (Mr. Christie's Book Award and the Ann Connor Brimer Award). Most recently, Ann and Seamus was shortlisted for eight book awards including the Governor General's Award. Kevin lives in St. John's, Newfoundland.