Air You Breathe A Novel

4.5 stars. The story was a touch slow for me at times, but the writing is fantastic.

A female friendship in 1930ies Brazil, that is based on a common passion of music and the drive to escape their upbringing. One of them is made to create the music, the other is made for the lamplight. The jealousy and co-dependency between the two friends brings conflict but also fuels their musical creativity. The novel is engaging, who doesn't love to read about feisty orphans escaping their poor surroundings to follow the call of music and to become successful recording artists. The underground music scene in Brazil, the lush nightclubs, the origins of Samba, all of this was atmospheric and fun to follow along with. The push and pull between Graça and Dores (and Vinicius) was compelling, but never reached that irresistible mystique that Lena and Lila had (I'd say that's a fair comparisons here, as I've seen [a:Elena Ferrante 44085 Elena Ferrante https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/user/u_50x66-632230dc9882b4352d753eedf9396530.png] mentioned in some of the blurbs). Especially Graça never fully took shape for me, therefore the climax of the story fell a bit flat. This book applies the same technique as [b:Daisy Jones & The Six 40597810 Daisy Jones & The Six Taylor Jenkins Reid https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1551887263s/40597810.jpg 61127102] in showing song lyrics that clearly stand in for the feelings of the song writers, and therefore become important parts of the narration. 3.5

I'm going to need some time to collect my thoughts, because I want to write a review that does this book justice. But this was absolutely stunning.