The Air We Breathe

By Andrea Barrett

Subjects: Communicable diseases, Patients, World War, 1914-1918, Immigrants, Fiction, historical, Fiction, historical, general, Fiction, medical, Fiction, Adirondack Mountains (N.Y.), History, Adirondack mountains (n.y.), fiction, Tuberculosis

Description: "An evocative panorama of America...on the cusp of enormous change" (Newsday) by the National Book Award-winning author ofShip Fever. In the fall of 1916, America prepares for war--but in the community of Tamarack Lake, the focus is on the sick. Wealthy tubercular patients live in private cure cottages; charity patients, mainly immigrants, fill the large public sanatorium. Prisoners of routine, they take solace in gossip, rumor, and--sometimes--secret attachments. But when the well-meaning efforts of one enterprising patient lead to a tragic accident and a terrible betrayal, the war comes home, bringing with it a surge of anti-immigrant prejudice and vigilante sentiment. Reading group guide included.