Close Your Eyes, Hold Hands is a Searing Portrayal of a Nuclear Disaster

The newest book by Chris Bohjalian (best-selling author of The Sandcastle Girls), Close Your Eyes, Hold Hands tells the haunting story of a young woman’s coming of age in the wake of a terrible tragedy.

It opens with the meltdown of a nuclear power plant in the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont, as seen through the eyes of precocious teenager Emily Shepard. Emily’s parents, Bill and Mira, both work at the plant, and are both reported missing in the aftermath of the catastrophe.

While there’s no lack of characters these days who inhabit different variations of a postapocalyptic world, it’s refreshing to read a story that takes a frighteningly possible scenario and watches it unfold gradually, with unflinching realism. Emily’s compelling narration veers at times from resolute honesty to guarded wariness as she presents a firsthand account of how everyday people respond when the unthinkable occurs. Through Emily we see strangers banding together heroically to help and comfort one another during a crisis, and we see them fracture contentiously apart. When Emily later envisions the way the houses in her neighborhood, long abandoned thanks to dangerous levels of radiation, look after sitting empty for months—the food rotting in refrigerators, the beds sitting rumpled and unmade after being deserted in a hurry—the imagery is a heartbreaking and poignant reminder of the way in which the mundane, comforting aspects of everyday life can suddenly end in an instant.

Before she loses her home and family in the nuclear disaster, Emily is a fairly normal teenage girl. Occasionally she acts out and gets into trouble, and she’s constantly being told that she’s not living up to her potential in school, but she’s also clearly intelligent—a sharp observer of the world around her, and a budding poet with a passionate interest in the life and works of Emily Dickinson, which give her comfort and hope. Many of her disciplinary problems seem to stem from the unhappiness of her parents, who have begun to drink heavily in recent years.

Soon after the meltdown, as statewide evacuations begin, Emily learns that her father is being widely blamed for causing the accident; whether it’s actually his fault is unclear, but he and her mother are rapidly becoming national scapegoats for the tragedy. Terrified that the fury directed at them will fall on her shoulders, Emily changes her name, slips away from well-meaning social workers who already have their hands full with other children, and soon finds herself trapped in the hard life of a teenaged runaway. Fearful of her identity being discovered, and learning quickly that the people she can trust are few and far between, she never allows herself to stay for too long in any one place.

That is, until she meets nine-year-old fellow runaway Cameron, who has escaped from an abusive foster home. Although she has been drifting for months through various hopeless and often dangerous situations, once she takes Cameron under her wing, Emily devotes herself to his care and safety. She worries that he should be in school, works hard to make sure he’s eating well, and finds in her relationship with him a kind of resolve and purpose that her own self-preservation never inspired.

Emily’s narrative is not always linear; although she notes that she wants to tell the whole story, and will always be honest, her timeline jumps around. However, her voice is so distinct and captivating, and there’s such a fluidity to the story, that it feels seamless, as all of the pieces gradually fall into place. Despite a string of decisions that range from shrewd and calculating to completely self-destructive, Emily is a deeply relatable character, whose inner voice will appeal to older teens as well as adults. Close Your Eyes, Hold Hands is a moving, powerful story of redemption, sacrifice, and the will to survive under impossible circumstances. Bohjalian’s latest novel is one that will stay with you long after you’ve finished it.

Are you planning to read Close Your Eyes, Hold Hands?