{"product_id":"deep-breath-9781646223268","title":"Deep Breath","description":"\u003cb\u003eA visceral and stirring novel exploring free will, memory, faith, and constructions of reality and the self, following a woman faced with the question of whether her marriage is abusive, and the life-altering decision of ending it\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eWhen we meet Vera, her body and mind are on a precipice. She's just left her marital home to live with her father after her husband's violent outbursts reach a breaking point. She's experiencing sudden losses of consciousness, spells of insomnia and difficulty eating. Over the course of the year that follows, she reignites a high school romance, looks to her divorced parents for guidance, attempts couples therapy, struggles to mother two young daughters, develops a brief cocaine dependency, and tries to rekindle her artistic practice--all while questioning, in Halász's immediate, intimate prose, the infinite number of choices that led her to this difficult moment. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eTowards the end of the novel, we follow Vera into a surreal funhouse mirror of a courtroom scene, equally comical and horrifying, where she must confront the many conflicting narratives of her marriage and separation and decide which one rings true. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eWith the emotional precision and formal elegance reminiscent of Natalia Ginzburg and Elena Ferrante, Halász offers a meditation on agency, subjectivity, motherhood, and the artistic vocation with an ultimately optimistic conclusion: life consists of forward movement, in which the biggest challenge--and privilege--is choice. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cb\u003e\"Halász's terse and unsparing syntax mirrors her protagonist's disorientation, splicing together different conversations and memories in the span of a paragraph, sometimes even a single sentence . . . It's a testament to both Halász's and Herbert's narrative talents that even when Vera's mind tips over a precipice, the reader is still able to parse her spiraling consciousness . . . Remarkable.\" --Jane Hu, \u003ci\u003eThe New York Times Book Review\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eBinding Type:\u003c\/b\u003e Paperback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Catapult\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 05\/19\/2026\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN:\u003c\/b\u003e 9781646223268\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 224\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 0.35lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 8.20h x 5.50w x 0.70d","brand":"Rita Hal\u0026#195;\u0026#160;sz","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":52571170799797,"sku":"9781646223268","price":14.41,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"url":"https:\/\/pastforward.org\/products\/deep-breath-9781646223268","provider":"Past Forward","version":"1.0","type":"link"}