Holding Her Breath by Eimear Ryan
Synopsis
A young woman comes of age in the shadow of her family's tragic past
When Beth Crowe starts university, she is shadowed by the ghost of her potential as a competitive swimmer. Free to create a fresh identity for herself, she finds herself among people who adore the poetry of her grandfather, Benjamin Crowe, who died tragically before she was born.
She embarks on a secret relationship - and on a quest to discover the truth about Benjamin and his widow, her beloved grandmother Lydia. The quest brings her into an archive that no scholar has ever seen, and to a person who knows things about her family that nobody else knows.
Holding Her Breath is a razor-sharp, moving and seriously entertaining novel about complicated love stories, ambition and grief - and a young woman coming fully into her powers.
Reviews
'A beautiful coming-of-age story told with impressive skill and lightness of touch . . . I absolutely loved it' Louise O'Neill
'Whip smart observations and addictive prose' Sunday Telegraph
'Precise, sure, engaging, and a joy to read' Roddy Doyle
'A moving debut with a satisfying conclusion' Irish Independant
'Brilliant, vivid - I enjoyed this book ENORMOUSLY' Marian Keyes
'Through the dark sky of our times, Eimear Ryan arrives like a comet, a bright talent scorching through every page' Doireann Ní Ghríofa, author of A Ghost in the Throat
'Brilliantly realised, gripping, and moving . . . This is absolutely the real thing' Kevin Power
'Written with a wonderful clarity and insight, Holding Her Breath lingers in the imagination. Beth's unravelling and re-ravelling is drawn with great skill and empathy. A brilliant debut' Donal Ryan
About the Author
Eimear Ryan is an Irish writer, publisher and one of the founding editors of Banshee Press. She has also worked as a freelance journalist. Her debut novel, Holding Her Breath, is due for publication by Penguin Books in 2021. As of 2021, she is the Writer-in-Residence at University College Cork