Holding Her Breath

By: Eimear Ryan

Narrated by: Clara Harte

Length: 7 hrs and 17 mins

Publisher's summary

Brought to you by Penguin.

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.

©2021 Eimear Ryan (P)2021 Penguin Audio

Critic reviews

"A beautiful coming-of-age story told with impressive skill and lightness of touch.... I absolutely loved it." (Louise O'Neill)

"Precise, sure, engaging, and a joy to read." (Roddy Doyle)

"A nimble account of student life with a darkly enjoyable undercurrent of secrecy and emotional turmoil." (Sara Baume)