Close Your Eyes, Hold Hands (Vintage Contemporaries) - Softcover

"A compelling tale of loss, resilience, and transformation." --The Boston Globe, "Pick of the Week"

"Suspenseful, provocative, often terrifying yet compassionate. . . . One of the most memorable teenage protagonists in recent fiction." --The Washington Post

"Heartbreaking. . . . This is an adult novel . . . but readers of any age who love John Green's novels might find [Emily]'s story, sobering as it is, an awesome one." --Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

"Stirring, sensitive. . . . One of the most authentic and distinctive voices since Emma Donoghue's [Room]." --San Francisco Chronicle

"I have a new favorite Chris Bohjalian novel. Close Your Eyes, Hold Hands is a book I wish I'd been smart enough to write: a masterpiece of narrative voice." --Jodi Picoult

"Chris Bohjalian is a master. . . . Emily Shepard is his greatest accomplishment." --Los Angeles Times

"A chilling and heartbreaking suspense novel." --USA Today

"Enthralling and indelible." --People

"Intelligent, rich in detail, filled with full-blooded characters.... Bohjalian at his finest." --The Seattle Times

"A 'must read' book." --St. Louis Post Dispatch

"Haunting and resonant." --The Miami Herald

"Emily's character is written so well and her story so absorbing (this is very much a read-in-one-or-two-sittings type of book) that it is easy to forget you're actually reading . . . Close Your Eyes, Hold Hands reminds us of our innate need for connection." --Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

"A masterful storyteller . . . Bohjalian hits every note. His characters have depth, his story sings." --The Advocate (Baton Rouge, LA)

"Bohjalian delivers a thoroughly engrossing and poignant coming-of-age story set against a nightmarish backdrop as real as yesterday's headlines from Fukushima and Chernobyl. And in Emily he's created a remarkable and complicated teenager . . . [with] a wry, honest voice as distinctive as Holden Caulfield's." --Associated Press

"Dazzling. . . . A novel for the ages. . . . This is pure beauty in book form." --The Free-Lance Star (Fredericksburg, VA)

"A potent story of loss, hope, and the overpowering yearning for home." --The Armenian Weekly

"Rings with poetry and truth." --Library Journal

"A dystopian nightmare entwined with a wrenching personal crisis . . . The notion of 'just a life I left' grows more intense for somebody like Emily Shepard who can't return and is unsure about how to go forward." --Burlington Free Press

"[A] brave saga." --Booklist

"Impressive. . . . [Emily's] admiration for kindred spirit Emily Dickinson serves to humanize her plight, as does an epiphany in the book's bittersweet conclusion." --Publishers Weekly

"Bohjalian once again reveals an uncanny talent for crafting a young female protagonist who is fatally flawed, but nevertheless immensely likable. . . . Resonates with a message of hope, truth and the fragility of life." --BookPage

"Emily's voice is a compelling one... and hers is a journey readers will avidly follow." --Kirkus Reviews