Breathe: A Novel [Paperback]

Anne-Sophie Brasme (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 12, 2004

Breathe is the haunting confession of nineteen-year-old Charlene Boher. From her prison cell, Charlene recounts her lonely adolescence. Growing up shy and unpopular, Charlene never had many friends. That is, until she meet Sarah, a beautiful and charismatic American-French girl who moved back to Paris for high school. Much to Charlene's shock and delight, the two girls quickly develop an intense friendship. With Sarah by her side, Charlene finally begins to feel accepted and even loved.

However, after a brief idyllic period, the girls' relationship becomes rocky and friendship veers towards obsession. As Sarah drops Charlene for older, more glamorous friends, Charlene's devotion spirals into hatred. Unfolding slowly and eerily towards a shocking conclusion, Breathe is an intense, convincing portrait of a possessive and ambiguous friendship.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

Stories of obsession can be boring--all that self-absorption becomes repetitive--but this spare, poignant first novel, translated from the French, is so exquisitely written that you read it in one breathless rush. The suspense is not about what happens. You know from the first chapter that the narrator is a murderer. Sleepless in prison, Charlene, 19, has no regrets about what she did two years ago. In the walls of her cell, she remembers the break with her family (suddenly "no more than a squalid bunch of strangers"), her loneliness, her ecstatic bonding with charismatic Sarah at their elite high school. Then Sarah drops Charlene, bullies her, treats her as a pet, and worse of all, ignores her. Charlene has a brief love affair with a kind, handsome guy, and she almost becomes an ordinary teen, able to love without hatred and obsession, until Sarah beckons, and Charlene is trapped again. The writer is just 20, and her unsettling story brings very close the passionate intensity of teenage friendship and betrayal. Hazel Rochman
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Review

"Brasme's potent debut spirals through the teenage psyche like the faultlines before a quake, featuring a heroine who could be Camus' sinister little sister."
- Caroline Leavitt, author of Girls In Trouble

"Breathe fuses gothic angst with something more sinisterly existenial...A short, dark account of the hothouse atmosphere of tortured adolescence and overheated relationships."
- Metro, UK

"Author Anne-Sophie Brasme is set to cause a stir with her debut novel, Breathe, about an unrepentant teen murderer."
- British Vogue

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 128 pages
• Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin; First Edition edition (August 12, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312331533
• ISBN-13: 978-0312331535
• Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 5.4 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,921,496 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars terrific insightful tale, September 1, 2004

By 

Harriet Klausner - See all my reviews
(#1 Hall OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Breathe: A Novel (Paperback)

Nineteen year old Charlene Boher has been in prison for two years now for murder. Everyone seems to need to know whether she feels any remorse for killing, but Charlene feels nothing inside except the loneliness that has eaten at her for most of her life. With so much time, she decides to write an autobiography to explain why she feels no regret and there for must be inhuman.

Reflecting back to her lonely preadolescence Charlene remembers her room was her sunny castle until school when she met Vanessa, but that friendship ended when Vanessa's family moved; her room once again became the castle of Charlene the hermit. The fights between her parents when she was seven consequently led to the destruction of her family. Charlene feels all alone until as a teen she met Sarah, who shockingly befriended her. Four years later, they meet Maxime leading to an argument and homicide.

BREATHE is a fabulous work of fiction that enables the audience to observe the range of negative emotions that obsessed individuals emit. Charlene is an incredible character as she serves as the poster teen of what could go wrong when a family and a community fail a child. She gives no excuses or blame for her actions, as taking a life is ho hum. Charlene never received any positives until Sarah so a friendship obsession is no stretch. This terrific insightful tale will encourage readers to ponder what we are doing to the next generations.

Harriet Klausner

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Wonderfully Written Yet Lacking Somehow, November 14, 2005

By 

M. Kelley (Rochester, New York United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Breathe: A Novel (Paperback)

I do believe that Brasme's novel is very well written, she is very well versed for being 17 at the time it was published. i was rather disturbed at the abrupt ending and there were times that i felt the story lacked some substance. overall i felt it was a good read, i wouldnt recommend it to any teens under the age of 16-the story although not graphic, is rather depressing. Also, Charlene shows no emotion or remorse for her crime and anyone who reads this books and is feeling the same as she (charlene) may not see the danger in committing such a crime as murder. This book also brings to mind "Queen Bees and Wannabes"-that whole adolescent drama of the popular kids vs. the wannabes...good insight for anyone thinking that teens lack their own distinct personalities....

3.0 out of 5 stars Obsession...or self-hatred?, January 28, 2009

By 

thewaspyfeminist (Middle of the woods, VA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Breathe: A Novel (Paperback)

We know at the beginning of the book that Charlene has killed her best friend. What we don't know is why. In the beginning we meet Charlene in her prison cell. She admits what she has done and she doesn't seem to be remorseful. From there she begins the story of her life: from a shy child to a haunted adolescent. Sarah, an American French girl, comes into Charlene's life in high school and from then on Charlene's life is doomed.

This was an interesting novel. Short, but really long enough. What interested me was that the novel claimed to be about obsession and how that can take over one's life. However, it seemed to me that Charlene wasn't really obsessed; she was taken over by Sarah and as much as she tried, could not escape the hold that Sarah had on her. Sarah is not really an innocent in this story as you think at the start. She is pretty evil and knows it. She treats Charlene rottenly and finds it amusing. It's interesting. That's really the best word I can find to describe this story.