Holding Her Breath

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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 woman coming fully into her powers.
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”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 INDEPENDENT

”Brilliant, vivid – I enjoyed this book ENORMOUSLY” MARIAN KEYES

”Enthralling” IMAGE

”A nimble account of student life with a darkly enjoyable undercurrent of secrecy and emotional turmoil” SARA BAUME

”A truly compelling read, and one I wholeheartedly recommend” BUZZ

”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