Books
It is one of the books most valued by Australians, a novel of initiation into adulthood ideal for reading in front of the sea.
The edition of Breathe (Libros del Asteroid) has arrived in bookstores at the right time: the book of Tim Winton It is a gem of the australian literatureas well as one of the most valued classics in the country, which tells a perfect story for the summer. Furthermore, his adaptation to cinema is part of the ranking of the Best Movies Australians of all time and received eight nominations for the AACTA (the Australian Film and Television Academy Awards), of which its director, co-writer and performer Simon Baker (The mentalist) came out as Best Supporting Actor.
The award-winning writer’s tenth novel was originally published in 2008, although the impeccable Winton prose and the overflowing story it tells has made Breathe A book that never goes out of style. On the other hand, the scenarios The places in which it takes place are also an attraction that makes it a perfect trip to undertake from the beach, a characteristic that revives it strongly in summer. The author manages to create a enveloping atmosphere and with an evocative force sufficient to transport anyone to the waters of the Indian Ocean.
The four-time winner of the prestigious literary award Miles Franklin, The story begins with a overwhelming start that knots the stomach, as a premise of the emotional permeability of his narrative: Bruce Pike, an out-of-hospital emergency doctor, responds to a call at a home. Once there he finds two young women sitting in the living room, crying, and a woman sitting on the bed in one of the bedrooms, next to the lying body of her son. The boy has hanged himself.
From then on, Tim Winton uses the resource flashback to tell the Bruce’s childhood. The story goes back to when she was eleven years old, when she lived in a logging town, near the wild coast of Western Australia. The protagonist’s solitary personality is shaken when he befriends Loonie, an impulsive and rebellious boy with whom he discovers the surf. Bruce becomes obsessed with riding the waves, and picking up the board becomes almost an addiction, especially when he meets Sando as a teenager. With him, the two friends enter a world of challenges increasingly dangerous.
A ‘living treasure’
Read Breathe shows why the National Trust of Australia appointed Winton Living Treasurethat is, a kind of living treasure. The Australian portrays friendship in adolescence and the rites of transition to adulthood with an overwhelming ability to convey the intensity of each first time. This way he gets the reader to ride the wave with the character. It is, in turn, a portrait of a man who has lived too quickly.
Critics have described the book as “a ruthless portrait of our propensity to be fascinated by the harm we inflict on ourselves (The Independent); «a novel that tells us about getting to the bottom, complicating life and ending the destroyed soul forever (…) Although what lasts is the ephemeral beauty of the world” (Washington Post); “a novel about fever for living and a powerful tribute to the sea» (Le Monde) or “a hymn to beauty of riding on water and a sober reflection on the price one has to pay when one loses one’s balance, in every sense of the word” (The New Yorker).
