Close Your Eyes, Hold Hands
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Brief Summary
A Washington Post, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, and Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Best Book of the Year -
Emily Shepard is on the run; the nuclear plant where her father worked has suffered a cataclysmic meltdown, and all fingers point to him. Now, orphaned, homeless, and certain that she's a pariah, Emily's taken to hiding out on the frigid streets of Burlington, Vermont, creating a new identity inspired by her favorite poet, Emily Dickinson.
Then she meets Cameron. Nine years old and with a string of foster families behind him, he sparks something in Emily, and she protects him with a fierceness she did not know she possessed. But when an emergency threatens the fledgling home she's created, Emily realizes that she can't hide forever.
Fairewinds Acknowledgement
"I want to begin by thanking … people whose work is dramatically more important than anything I do…. There is the leadership team at Fairewinds energy education, Arnie and Maggie Gundersen. Arnie was an atomic energy commission fellow and a licensed reactor operator who, as a senior vice president, managed or coordinated projects at 70 nuclear power plants across America. Maggie worked in public information and executive recruitment in the nuclear power industry. Today, through Fairewinds, they strive to educate the public and legislative tors about the realities of nuclear power and the issues with aging plants around the world. They volunteered enormous amounts of their time to teach me about the dangers of nuclear power, how plant works, and what Emily’s father’s life might have been like. I am encourage you to visit the Fairewinds website, where you can learn more about nuclear power and finding extensive bibliography."
Master storyteller Chris Bohjalian turned to Arnie & Maggie Gundersen of Fairewinds for technical advice on nuclear reactor operations and accidents for his latest novel, "Close Your Eyes, Hold Hands." Here's one review:
"After introducing this big what-if premise, Bohjalian (whose many novels include the Oprah favorites "Midwives" and "The Sandcastle Girls") writes about the nuclear aftermath in a scrupulously realistic way. He doesn't blow the slightest apocalyptic or dystopian wind on those fuel rods. It's nonetheless a scary scenario, the frightening flip side of every Homer Simpson mishap that millions of us have laughed at."
and from a review in the Washington Post:
“Close Your Eyes, Hold Hands,” Chris Bohjalian’s terrific new novel, could serve as a master class on how to write the thinking reader’s bestseller…..
“A nuclear meltdown changes people,” Emily muses early in the novel, “and I don’t mean radiation sickness or ‘Twilight Zone’ kinds of mutations in babies.” The triumph of Bohjalian’s novel is that it changes people, too: It’s hard to believe anyone could read this book and not have their worldview irrevocably shaken, much as Emily’s is.
Chris said on Facebook, "Arnie and Maggie are rock stars! I learned SO much from them. I am SO grateful to them for all that they and Fairewinds Energy Education do."
"Close Your Eyes, Hold Hands" goes on sale July 8. It is available in many formats via links on his website, on Amazon.com, or find it at a local independent bookstore near you through Indie Bound here.
