The Air We Breathe, Andrea Barrett
The Air We Breathe, Andrea Barrett
List: $25.95 | Sale: $18.16
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The Air We Breathe
A Novel

Author: Andrea Barrett

Narrator: Jeff Woodman

Unabridged: 10 hr 18 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 09/24/2007


Synopsis

In the autumn of 1916, Americans are debating whether to enter the First World War. There are “preparedness parades,” and headlines report German spies. But in an isolated community in the Adirondacks in upstate New York, the danger is barely felt. At Tamarack Lake the focus is on the sick. Wealthy tubercular patients live in private cure cottages; charity patients, many of them recent immigrants from Europe, fill the sanatorium.Here, in the crisp air, time stands still. Prisoners of routine and yearning for absent families, the inmates, including the newly arrived Leo Marburg, take solace in gossip, rumor, and secret attachments.An enterprising patient initiates a weekly discussion group. When his well-meaning efforts lead instead to tragedy and betrayal, the war comes home, bringing with it a surge of anti-immigrant prejudice and vigilante sentiment. Andrea Barrett pits power and privilege against unrest and thwarted desire, in a spellbinding tale of individual lives in a nation on the verge of extraordinary change.

About Andrea Barrett

Andrea Barrett is the author of nine previous works of fiction, including the National Book Award–winning Ship Fever and Pulitzer Prize finalist Servants of the Map. She is the recipient of a MacArthur Fellowship, a Guggenheim Fellowship, and an NEA Fellowship, as well as a finalist for the Story Prize and a recipient of the Rea Award for the Short Story.

About Jeff Woodman

Jeff Woodman is an actor and narrator. He is a winner of the prestigious Audie Award and a six-time finalist. He has received twenty Earphones Awards and was named the 2008 Best Voice in Fiction & Classics, as well as one of the Fifty Greatest Voices of the Century by AudioFile magazine. As an actor, he originated the title role in Tennessee Williams’ The Notebook of Trigorin and won the S. F. Critics’ Circle Award for his performance in An Ideal Husband. In addition to numerous theater credits on and off Broadway, his television work includes Sex and the City, Law & Order, and Cosby.


Reviews

I recently shared with my husband that one of my goals for the calendar year was to attempt to rediscover the joy I felt as a younger reader when I would simply wander the stacks of my library to find a book to try and then really enjoyed it, vs seeking out a specific book because I had read or been......more


Quotes

“A careful researcher and an even more deliberate writer…This expertly paced and thoughtfully written book is ample testament to her gifts.” Elle

“In the fall of 1916, as the US involvement in WWI looms, the Adirondack town of Tamarack Lake houses a public sanitarium and private cure cottages for TB patients…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…the tragedy, betrayal, and heartbreak of war extend far beyond the battlefield.” Publishers Weekly

“Wealthy tuberculosis sufferers cure their lungs on private porches, while poor immigrants endure long stays at Tamarack State Sanatorium…Her storytelling restraint evokes the era…Fans of her previous work are unlikely to be disappointed.” Booklist

“The Air We Breathe strikes a sharp allegorical note with civil liberty issues today.” Bookmarks magazine