The Air We Breathe – A Novel - Softcover

Barrett, Andrea

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0393333078 ISBN 13: 9780393333077

Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company, 2008

Synopsis

In the fall of 1916, America prepares for war-but in the community of Tamarack Lake, the focus is on the sick. Wealthy tubercular patients live in private cure cottages; charity patients, mainly immigrants, fill the large public sanatorium. Prisoners of routine, they take solace in gossip, rumor, and-sometimes-secret attachments. But when the well-meaning efforts of one enterprising patient lead to a tragic accident and a terrible betrayal, the war comes home, bringing with it a surge of anti-immigrant prejudice and vigilante sentiment. Reading group guide included.

About this title

Review:

"Andrea Barrett is in a class by herself. A near-perfect equipoise between smooth storytelling and the suggestion of larger truths" (Newsday)

"Few writers have mastered the historical novel as [Barrett] has... Her re-creation of time and place remains glittering" (The Times)

"This is a meticulously researched novel, and provides an edifying glimpse into an odd, static world during a period when the world outside was anything but static" (Daily Telegraph)

Book Description:

The exquisite, much-anticipated new novel by the author of Ship Fever, winner of the National Book Award.

About this edition

• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
• Publication date: 2008
• ISBN 10: 0393333078
• ISBN 13: 9780393333077
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 320