Holding Her Breath

SHORTLISTED FOR THE IRISH BOOK AWARDS 2021

SHORTLISTED FOR THE KATE O''BRIEN AWARD 2022

''A stunning debut from this new Irish talent'' STELLAR

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 w