Ian Van WinkleVan Winkleitibaren5911 KJ Venlo, Hollandaitibaren5911 KJ Venlo, Hollanda

Anne Michaels is Canadian, and a really good poet. If you've ever wondered what a novel would be like were it painstakingly sculpted as if it were poetry, read this. It's a beautiful, haunting story surrounding, but not detailing the Holocaust. Each word seems like it was oh-so-carefully chosen, and were Michaels not such a gifted writer, it might feel agonized in that way. As it is, it's almost perfect.