The Air We Breathe

By Andrea Barrett,

Book cover of The Air We Breathe

Book description

In the fall of 1916, America prepares for war-but in the isolated 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.…

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Why read it?

1 author picked The Air We Breathe as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

For me, to open a book by Andrea Barrett is a treat—well-crafted, intelligent writing; interesting, complex characters; an intimate story. Added to that, for me, at least some of her characters have an interest in the natural sciences. The narrator of the story is not disclosed until the ending, and this disclosure, in itself, amplifies the story and reveals Barrett’s craftsmanship.

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