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More copies of this ISBNThis title in other editionseBook editionsThe Air We Breatheby Andrea Barrett
Synopses & ReviewsPublisher Comments:In fall 1916, Americans debate whether to enter the European war. "Preparedness parades" march and headlines report German spies. But in an isolated community in the Adirondacks, the danger is barely felt. At 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. For all, time stands still. Prisoners of routine and yearning for absent families, the patients, including the newly arrived Leo Marburg, take solace in gossip, rumor, and--sometimes--secret attachments. An enterprising patient initiates a weekly discussion group. When his well-meaning efforts lead instead to a tragic accident and a terrible betrayal, the war comes home, bringing with it a surge of anti-immigrant prejudice and vigilante sentiment. The conjunction of thwarted desires and political tension binds the patients so deeply that, finally, they speak about what's happened in a single voice. The Air We Breathe, though entirely self-contained, extends the web of connected characters begun with Ship Fever. Review:"Picking up connected characters from her 1996 National Book Award — winning story collection Ship Fever, the latest from Barrett follows her Pulitzer Prize finalist Servants of the Map. In the fall of 1916, as the U.S. involvement in WWI looms, the Adirondack town of Tamarack Lake houses a public sanitarium and private 'cure cottages' for TB patients. Gossip about roommate changes, nurse visits, cliques and romantic connections dominate relations among the sick — mostly poor European immigrants — when they're not on their porches taking their rest cure. Intrigue increases with the arrival of Leo Marburg, an attractive former chemist from Odessa who has spent his years in New York slaving away at a sugar refinery, and of Miles Fairchild, a pompous and wealthy cure cottage resident who decides to start a discussion group, despite his inability to understand many of his fellow patients. As in Joshua Ferris's recent Then We Came to the End, Barrett narrates with a collective 'we,' the voice of the crowd of convalescents. Details of New York tenements and of the sanitarium's regime are vivid and engrossing. The plot, which hinges on the coming of WWI, has a lock-step logic, but its transparency doesn't take away from the timeliness of its theme: how the tragedy, betrayal and heartbreak of war extend far beyond the battlefield." Publishers Weekly (Copyright Reed Business Information, Inc.) Synopsis:The exquisite, much-anticipated new novel by the author of Ship Fever, winner of the National Book Award. Synopsis:"An evocative panorama of America...on the cusp of enormous change" (Newsday) by the National Book Award-winning author of Ship Fever. About the AuthorAndrea Barrett has received a National Book Award and a MacArthur grant and has been a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. She lives in North Adams, Massachusetts, and teaches at Williams College. What Our Readers Are SayingAdd a comment for a chance to win!Average customer rating based on 1 comment: 
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