The Art of Not Breathing
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3.0 • 1 Rating
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- £3.99
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- £3.99
Publisher Description
One minute Eddie was there. And the next he was gone.
Five years on, and it’s Elsie who’s lost. All she knows is the pain she feels. Pain that her twin Eddie’s body has never been found after that day on the beach.
Then she meets Tay; confident, cool and addicted to free-diving. He says it’s too dangerous for her to join; it’s too dark, too scary, too deep. But what does he know?
He doesn’t know that being underwater is the only time Elsie doesn’t ache for her brother. That diving gives her flashbacks. And that uncovering the secrets of that day is the only way for Elsie to start breathing again.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Alexander debuts with a raw and sensitive novel about loss. During the five years since Elsie's twin brother, Eddie, drowned in the North Sea off Scotland's Black Isle, Elsie and her family have been doing everything they can to escape reality: Elsie's mother drinks, her father is never home, older brother Dillon develops an eating disorder, and Elsie isolates herself. Elsie also endlessly relives the day Eddie died, wondering what more she could have done, until she meets Tay McKenzie. He teaches Elsie to freedive (diving without a breathing apparatus), and Elsie begins to remember the "few black spots" of that day when she is underwater. The more Elsie recalls, the more she realizes that her family and friends have been hiding secrets. Alexander movingly traces the motions of family members trying to piece their lives back together while dealing with personal demons. Candidly written and balanced by notes of humor throughout, Elsie's journey to find the truth shows just how far she's willing to go to bring her family back from the depths of tragedy. Ages 14 up.
