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    The Air You Breathe: A Novel
    Unavailable
    The Air You Breathe: A Novel
    Unavailable
    The Air You Breathe: A Novel
    Audiobook16 hours

    The Air You Breathe: A Novel

    Written by Frances de Pontes Peebles

    Narrated by Rebecca Mozo

    4/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this audiobook

    The story of an intense female friendship fueled by affection, envy and pride—and each woman's fear that she would be nothing without the other.

    Some friendships, like romance, have the feeling of fate.

    Skinny, nine-year-old orphaned Dores is working in the kitchen of a sugar plantation in 1930s Brazil when in walks a girl who changes everything. Graça, the spoiled daughter of a wealthy sugar baron, is clever, well fed, pretty, and thrillingly ill behaved. Born to wildly different worlds, Dores and Graça quickly bond over shared mischief, and then, on a deeper level, over music.

    One has a voice like a songbird; the other feels melodies in her soul and composes lyrics to match. Music will become their shared passion, the source of their partnership and their rivalry, and for each, the only way out of the life to which each was born. But only one of the two is destined to be a star. Their intimate, volatile bond will determine each of their fortunes—and haunt their memories.

    Traveling from Brazil's inland sugar plantations to the rowdy streets of Rio de Janeiro's famous Lapa neighborhood, from Los Angeles during the Golden Age of Hollywood back to the irresistible drumbeat of home, The Air You Breathe unfurls a moving portrait of a lifelong friendship—its unparalleled rewards and lasting losses—and considers what we owe to the relationships that shape our lives.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPenguin Random House Audio
    Release dateAug 21, 2018
    ISBN9780525640615
    Unavailable
    The Air You Breathe: A Novel

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    Reviews for The Air You Breathe

    4/5

    48 ratings12 reviews

    What did you think?

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    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 4/5
      An epic journey about friendship, music and love. A beautiful lyrical prose. Excellent narration.
    • 4/5
      This was heartachingly beautiful. I can't say I ever became fully attached to the characters, but man did I feel that ending! I will definitely be picking up more from this author. She is a gifted writing. This story was so lyrical and beautiful. I think if you enjoyed The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo then you will enjoy this ♥️
    • 3/5
      I have mixed feelings regarding this book. I finished it, but can't give it a high rating.Two girls, both on a sugar plantation in Brazil. The first, an orphan who works in the kitchen with a woman who takes care of her, the other is the only daughter of the boisterous, self-absorbed owner of the plantation.As the plantation is in dire straights of survival. The spunky orphan refuses to allow the daughter of the owner to treat her badly. They grow to love each other through the wife and mother of the plantation owner. They land in Hollywood as they try to make a living in music. It works temporarily.I cannot recommend it.
    • 5/5
      A big, sprawling novel set in Brazil and Hollywood in the first half of the twentieth century. Dores is the orphaned kitchen girl on a sugar plantation. Graca is the daughter of the owner. Encouraged by Graca’s mother, they become friends. Music is their passion; Graca can sing, Dores can write lyrics. As young teenagers, they run away to the streets of Rio to become samba stars. So much is packed into this novel about music, friendship, show business, and love.
    • 2/5
      Meh. I just couldn't connect with the story or the characters. Loved them as young girls - which didn't last long enough in the story.
    • 2/5
      Couldn't do it.This is the story of the friendship of two girls. One is a skinny little orphan girl, and the other is a daughter of a wealthy sugar baron. Their lives come together by chance and they never let their friendship go. Even in death.I gave this book over 100 pages before I stopped reading it. Although it is well written and very lush in detail, I felt that the storyline is just not for me. To me the author seems to drone on and on and never seems to get to the point. I found this very irritating and boring to read. Music is very much a background in this book. You can hear it with almost every word the author writes. And while I love that fact again it is the authors incessant attention to detail down to the finer points and the constant drowning on that has turned my head from this book.I'm sure others would love to read this book but it is just not for me.
    • 3/5
      Lots of excellent elements to this novel; good writing, good storyline, good character development (for the most part), but it's big downfall is it is tooooo long. This needed a better editor. There is just too much detail, too much repetition, and too much information that does not move the story forward. I listened to this on audio and liked the narrator, but her cadence was slow which also dragged the book out, so about 1/2 way through I speeded it up to 1.25 and it still sounded normal but I was able to lop off a couple of hours.
    • 2/5
      Couldn't do it.This is the story of the friendship of two girls. One is a skinny little orphan girl, and the other is a daughter of a wealthy sugar baron. Their lives come together by chance and they never let their friendship go. Even in death.I gave this book over 100 pages before I stopped reading it. Although it is well written and very lush in detail, I felt that the storyline is just not for me. To me the author seems to drone on and on and never seems to get to the point. I found this very irritating and boring to read. Music is very much a background in this book. You can hear it with almost every word the author writes. And while I love that fact again it is the authors incessant attention to detail down to the finer points and the constant drowning on that has turned my head from this book.I'm sure others would love to read this book but it is just not for me.
    • 5/5
      This story takes place in the 1930's and the setting is Brazil and Los Angeles during the Golden Age of Hollywood. Graca, a spoiled daughter of a wealthy sugar baron, and Dores, an orphan kitchen worker at the sugar plantation, begin an intense friendship that is full of affection, jealousy and love. They share their passion for music - Graca as a singer and Dores as a writer. The writing is excellent and captivating and makes the book hard to put down. As you read about their singing and dancing, you can hear the samba music playing. The plot is beautiful and heartwarming in places but also tragically sad. Dores' narration is vivid and unforgettable. I look forward to reading more from this author and I would highly recommend this book to those who love cultural historical fiction.
    • 4/5
      I found this story of two women in Brazil to be interesting yet not completely compelling. Two girls were born on a remote sugar cane plantation; one to a slave cane cutter and the other to the family owning the plantation. Basically through luck, they become close as children as Dores, the daughter of the cane cutter, is taken in to keep Graca company as she studies. They soon become fast friends and share much mischief. As they become older, Gracia's father send her to a convent school but Dores is allowed to go along as her "servant." It isn't long and they escape to Rio where they learn to eek out a living by doing all kinds of work; however, music is their calling.The bulk of the story is about the two women as they achieve some element of success as samba singers. Gracia has the voice and Dores has the grit and ambition to promote them. Dores also sings but her strength is in the music and lyrics that she writes. Before long they become connected with a band called the Blue Moon Boys. There is much about Brazilian music and the rise of the samba in popularity. The Blue Moon Boys and Gracia, now known as Sopfia Santigo, become famous eventually coming to the United States where Gracia is featured in some films. This is really a story of dreams achieved and a life-long friendship which is not without it's trials. Sometimes deep friends and sometimes competitors, the women remain together until Gracia's early death. The story has alternate chapters told by Dores as a much older woman. I liked the story, but at times felt like it read almost like a nonfiction book. The characters became very real, the plot believable, yet there were times that I was not totally pulled into the story.
    • 4/5
      This novel had so much that I love about historical fiction - a setting I don't quite know (Brazil in the 1920s-1940s in this case), ups and downs of fortune for the characters, and vivid passions. This is a story of friendship - an unlikely friendship between two women who grow up together on a Brazilian sugar plantation. Gracia is the daughter of the plantation owner and heiress to what is left of her father's fortune. Dores is an orphaned servant girl. Despite their differences in social class, the two become lifelong friends and their relationship defines both of their lives. Both wish to escape the plantation and they eventually do - Gracia becomes a legendary samba singer and even stars in Hollywood movies while Dores becomes her manager, even through she wants to take to the stage herself. A well-written and vivid novel, highly recommended for historical fiction fans.
    • 5/5
      4.5 Drawn in by the sights and sounds of the 1920's in Brazil and set againt the background of samba music, this is the story of two young girls, who against all odds become successful. Two young women, Dores and Graca, raised in very different circumstances, but become friends, each other's inspiration and eventual downfall. Their journey , the people they meet, an amazing story to follow, so much history followed in the time period when they are evolving as musicians and don't writers.The music, incredible lyrics, the descriptions, the emotions, want and need almost viscerally felt by this reader. The descriptions of the places, their costumes, a book where I felt as if I was part of their journey, rather than just witnessing their struggles and successes. The melancholy tone, felt throughout, the way the story is told by a now elderly Dores, recounting past days, the secrets exposed, the things that were done on the way to Gracas stardom, all drew in this reader. Beautifully told, beautifully written. An absolutely amazing book. Dores is based on the singer/songwriter Chevela Vargas and Graca is a mde up character loosely modeled on Carmen Miranda, and her path to fame. To these people music was everything, song lyrics are parsed throughout the novel, and music would be what is left.ARC from Edelweiss.