The Air We Breathe

By: Andrea Barrett

Narrated by: Jeff Woodman

Length: 10 hrs and 18 mins

Publisher's summary

In the fall of 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. 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.

©2007 Andrea Barrett (P)2007 BBC Audiobooks America

Critic reviews

"This expertly paced and thoughtfully written book is ample testament to [Barrett's] gifts." (Elle)
"Barrett [writes in the] collective we, the voice of the crowd of convalescents. Details of New York tenements and of the sanitarium's regime are vivid and engrossing." (Publishers Weekly)

Fascinating but difficult

The reading was superb. A fascinating book. But difficult. Subjects of giving up both bad and good by the promise of America only to be disappointed, and the slow emergence of recognition of the tremendous potential of women. Hard to read the failure of communication, the corrosive nature of obsession .

so/so

a good story with interesting historical background but I never quite got involved in the characters

Rich and absorbing

I love Andrea Barrett's story collection, Ship Fever, and this new novel is also terrific: complex, absorbing and intelligent, full of history but also good characters and a good story. There are even some elements of mystery.

As in Barrett's short stories, several of this novel's main characters are people who love science. Whether professional scientists or amateurs, they live ordinary and extraordinary lives that are often distorted by gender, social class, and politics. The complex but entirely credible plot plays out the combined effects of war, mass migration, chance, and individual psychology in the lives of several appealing and interesting main characters.

The reader is very good, although occasionally he gets his accents mixed up. This is a great book for a long, long drive.

Big world/little world

This book is the perfect example of how the world's big events are just background to our private dramas for most of us, and what a struggle it is to escape from the confines of our small lives and our self-delusions into something bigger and more alive. It gives you a lot to think about.

There's not a story here...

I wanted to like this book and I wanted to learn about tuberculosis and even about World War I. But that just didn't happen. Too many characters and too little story.