Holding the Line

FROM THE MULTI-MILLION COPY BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF DEMON COPPERHEAD
FROM THE WINNER OF THE PULITZER PRIZE
FROM THE TWICE WINNER OF THE WOMEN'S PRIZE

'[Kingsolver] means to save us by telling us stories . . . She comes closer than anyone else I know' Anne Patchett

'A mesmerising account of women finding their voices' The Times

'The women tell remarkable stories of their lives and actions  ... This book pays powerful tribute to their resolve and passion for economic justice' Publishers Weekly

In the summer of 1983, Barbara Kingsolver was assigned to cover the Phelps Dodge mine strike as a freelance journalist. Over the year that followed, she recorded stories of striking miners and their stunningly courageous wives, sisters and daughters. She saw rights she'd taken for granted denied to people she had learned to care about, and she was determined to share their voices.

This is the true story of the courageous women and girls who held the line, who discovered themselves in their fight for rights, and of Kingsolver's commitment to showing the sparks that fly when the flint of force strikes against human mettle.

Barbara Kingsolver is one of America's greatest living novelists. She was named one the most important writers of the 20th Century by Writers Digest, and in 2023 won a Pulitzer Prize for her novel Demon Copperhead. Her books have been translated into more than thirty languages. She was awarded Britain's prestigious Women's Prize for Fiction (formerly the Orange Prize) for both Demon Copperhead and The Lacuna, making Kingsolver the first author in the history of the prize to win it twice. In 2011, Kingsolver was awarded the Dayton Literary Peace Prize for the body of her work.