The Air We Breathe by Andrea Barrett

The Air We Breathe by Andrea Barrett

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.

Andrea Barrett is the author of the National Book Award–winning Ship Fever and the Pulitzer Prize finalist Servants of the Map, among other works of fiction. The recipient of a MacArthur Fellowship and a Guggenheim Award, she lives in the Adirondacks.

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9780393061086
ISBN 10	0393061086
Title	The Air We Breathe
Author	Andrea Barrett
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type	Hardback
Publisher	WW Norton & Co
Year published	2007-10-26
Number of pages	320
Prizes	Commended for Massachusetts Book Award (MassBook) (Fiction) 2008
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.