Hold Fast

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 Newfoundland outport community, this means being uprooted and sent to live with relatives in St. Albert, miles away. Hold Fast is the story of Michael's struggle to survive in his new environment. In vivid, honest prose, it depicts his fight against those who stand as threats to his pride in himself and his way of life --the loud-mouthed Kentson who makes fun of the way he talks, and his uncle who tries to rule with an iron hand. It is also about 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 a plea 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."