Coming Up for Air

A lyrical, powerful, and richly textured novel about three lives that intertwine in poignant and surprising ways.

L’Inconnue is a young woman lost in turbulent Paris at the turn of the nineteenth century.

Pieter is a Norwegian toymaker and father to two young children in the 1950s.

Anouk is a contemporary Canadian suffering from cystic fibrosis, a medical condition that leaves her constantly fighting for air, swimming through the boundary between life and death as she awaits a lung transplant that could save her life.

The way their stories intersect takes us effortlessly through time and space, revealing how our lives can be changed by strangers ― and how we, in turn, can shape events far beyond our apparent reach. An unforgettable novel about what lives on beyond us, Coming Up for Air exists in the moment between the exhale and the inhale and the space between water and air. It explores the cycle of life and the nature and transcendental power of storytelling.