What Endures

by Pauline Holdstock

240 pages, Paperback

Published August 18, 2026

About the author

Pauline Holdstock is a Canadian citizen who has lived in Canada for over thirty years. She writes novels, short fiction and essays. Her books have been published in the U.K, the U.S., Brazil, Portugal, Australia and Germany, as well as in Canada, where CBC’s 'The Arts Tonight' has featured her work.

Pauline’s short fiction has appeared in numerous literary magazines.

The Hunter And The Wild Girl, Winner of the City of Victoria Butler Book Prize Prize, is her most recent novel.

Her novel, Beyond Measure, was a finalist for the 2004 Giller Prize and the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize, Canada and Caribbean Region. It won the BC Book Prizes Ethel Wilson Award for Fiction in 2005.

A recent novella, The World of Light Where We Live, was the winner of the Malahat Review 2006 Novella Contest.

Pauline Holdstock also writes non-fiction. Her essays and book reviews have appeared in Canada’s national newspapers and have been broadcast on CBC radio. She was the winner of the Prairie Fire Personal Journalism Prize, 2000.

Pauline has taught at the Victoria School of Writing and at the University of Victoria. She has served on the faculty of the Banff Centre Wired Writing Studio, and the Banff Centre’s Writing with Style program.

Reviews

[sophie]

dnf @ 50% it's just so painfully British and i can't do it anymore

[Michael Godwin]

What Endures by Pauline Holdstock is a thoughtful and sharply observed collection that examines the strange, funny, unsettling, and surprisingly tender realities of contemporary life. Moving across different circumstances and moments in time, the stories explore what it means to remain connected and human in a world increasingly overwhelmed by speed, distraction, absurdity, and uncertainty.

What particularly stands out is Holdstock's ability to find significance in seemingly ordinary situations. Difficult relationships, family tensions, unexpected crises, moral questions, and moments of vulnerability become opportunities to examine the things that quietly sustain people. The collection moves comfortably between humor and seriousness, allowing its lighter moments to coexist with deeper reflections on loneliness, truth, connection, and the possibility of hope.

Readers who enjoy literary short fiction, contemporary stories, darkly comic observations, reflective fiction, and character-focused explorations of everyday life should find What Endures especially rewarding. Rather than offering simple answers, these stories invite readers to consider what remains meaningful when circumstances change—and what small acts of connection might ultimately endure.

[Mike Broderick]

Thank you to Edelweiss and the publisher for an advance copy of this book. This will be a fairly common review of short story compilations for me. There were some outstanding stories, including the title story “What Endures.” However, there were other stories that I just did not get and still others that were flat out boring. The writing is solid, and I know the author was writing a deep, meaningful book. As I continued through the stories, I started to see some connections between them, but it took quite a bit of work to get there for me. I think that this book wants to be a series of stories that is based on a world that is always changing. However, some stories were actually very personal and highlighted first world issues. That disconnect took away one star for me. An example of this was the first story, which actually held my interest very well. A story where a woman brings a dog home. This dog is a bit of a terror. The ease with which this relationship ended because of this dog screamed “entitled” to me.
While there were stories that were excellent, for the negative reasons, I have this one as a middle of the road read.