The back cover reads:

It's funny, but you never think much about breathing. Until it's all you ever think about.


When paramedic Bruce Pike arrives too late to save a boy found hanged in his bedroom he senses immediately that this lonely death is an accident.

Pike knows the difference between suicide and misadventure. He understands only too well the forces that can propel a kid toward oblivion. Not just because he's an ambulance man, but because of the life he's lived, the boy he once was, addicted to extremes, flirting with death, pushing every boundary in the struggle to be extraordinary, barely knowing where or how to stop.

So begins a story about the damage you do to yourself when you're young and think you're immortal.

In his first novel for seven years, Tim Winton has achieved a new level of mastery. Breath confirms him as one of the world's finest storytellers, whose work is both accessible and profound, relentlessly gripping and deeply moving.

Sending out as a bookring, a part of DrCris' 2009 Miles Franklin Challenge:

- Lakelay2282
- Goodthinkingmax
- BookseekerAT
- tqd
- Freepages
- Livrecache
- DrCris
- Felicia-fairy
- Jubby

Thanks so much Rebecca.

Tim Winton is of course one of our premier wordsmith. His original use of verbs is unparralled in Australia ficton and his descriptive powers of the Australan landscape (and in this case seascape) are very evocative but (and it is quite a big BUT) I felt really let down by the denouement of this book. The last "present" part was so rushed and did not seem to fulful the past as I felt it should. For me something was missing. I expected (because of the construction of the novel) cause and effect and instead got a last wrapup tangle of incidents.
Thanks so much Jubby. Gosh after this review I hope you are still speaking to me, lol. Will post back soon.

Received in the post today.
Thanks.

CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:

I did read this last week and thought it was brilliant.

And then today I passed it on to Goodthinkingmax over a wonderful lunch.

However, I have horribly tired, and have to get off to bed, so will have to journal my thoughts another day.

And this got dropped off today by Jubby and the mini-jub-jub, who was most impressed with all of Mr Bear & Miss Boo's toys. (All over the floor and every available surface, as usual, so easily accessible to small kids!) Thanks Jubby, I do look forward to this one!

Well, I've always said that Tim Winton leaves me cold, I'm never engaged by his books, and often not particularly entertained. Sometimes I can see the appeal, but the book just doesn't appeal to me.

Either I've changed in the past few years, or Winton's writing has. I think it's more likely the former, which means I'm going to have to search out his earlier books for a re-read, because I enjoyed this one immensely.

Young Pikelet and his adrenalin-junkie mate Loonie learn how to surf on the coast of Western Australia, and also learn about life at the knee of their surfing guru. There is a feeling almost of a cult, albeit a very small one, around these three men.

Along the way, things get very intense and strange, and it all builds compelling up to an inevitable conclusion, but it only seemed inevitable in hindsight. At the time, I wasn't quite sure where it was going.

It is more of a bloke's book than I usually read (maybe that's why I haven't been a fan of Winton up until now), with the only female characters fairly minor, or distinctly strange. And while some parts of the plot seemed a bit implausible, I was definitely along for the ride all the way.

I have FreePages' address already (Goodthinkingmax & bookseekerAT have both already read and enjoyed this book), so will get it in the post asap.

CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:

In the mail to FreePages today.

Happy reading!

Caught your Breath! Thanks for sending it on TQD.
I'm not a big fan of Tim Wintons but I'm really interested to read this after reading the others on the short-list and seeing how it stacks up.
Watch this space ;-)

This was good. Very good!
Tim Winton really makes you breath the story and feel part of it. Beautifully and simply written, I didn't feel he pulled any punches with this one. It's the best thing of his I've read. I didn't much like Dirt Music (except for the escape to the Island) and felt lukewarm about Cloud Street but the expression in this was more like the children's novel, Blueback. To me, he seems to write at his best when he is writing about the sea.
Now that I've read all the 2009 shortlist this was a very good choice for the 2009 winner of the Miles Franklin Award.

I haven't heard from Livrecache in a while, not since her interstate move, I've got another book to send to her. I'll try to PM her again, I hope she gets the chance to read this one!
Thanks for the opportunity to read it Jubby.

I hope nobody had been holding their breath waiting for me to release this one :-)
I've got Livrecache's new Tassy address, so it's off the the apple isle with this one.

Enjoy :-)

Caught yesterday. We're having a literary weekend in the country this weekend, so I hope to make a good start on the three rings I got yesterday.

Thanks for forwarding them, Kim, and thanks to jubby for hosting this ring.

I have to say that I agree with Debbie's comments. The dynamics of the book were weird. The ending was so rushed. I was actually riding along with it until then, even though I know zilch about surfing, and I struggled a bit with the jargon, but I got the idea. But is our Tim re-living his youth? I think he was a surfer, and he must be about 50 now.
I did enjoy it, to an extent as I enjoy Winton's use of language (and it was much truer than Dirt Music) but I had certain expectations from the opening of the book, which were upheld during the body of it, but (as I've already said) the ending was so rushed that I felt disappointed. Was it a deadline? A word limit?

DrCris has already read the book, so I'll PM the next person now.