Holding Her Breath

March 7, 2022
An Irish collegiate swimmer unearths the truth about her grandfather, a famous poet, in Ryan’s penetrating debut. Beth Crowe, 20, is just starting university away from home on a sports scholarship, and is slowly acclimating after an undisclosed crisis. She meets Justin Kelleher, an older postdoc lecturer who is curious about the archives of famed poet Benjamin Crowe, Beth’s grandfather who died by suicide at age 43 after completing his collection Roslyn, later declared his masterwork. As Beth settles into swimming and schoolwork, she begins a secret affair with Justin while trying to find out more about her grandparents. She’s close to her grandmother, Lydia, who previously barred Justin from viewing Benjamin’s archives. Eventually, she makes an allowance for Beth, and Beth discovers the unpublished biography of Benjamin by Julie Conlon-Hayes, a friend of her grandparents who was rumored to have had an affair with Benjamin. As tensions from her personal life come to a head, Beth begins to wonder if she’s inherited her grandfather’s self-destructive tendencies. Despite some underdeveloped plot points, Ryan’s strong character-building and intriguing narrative parallels keep this afloat. Readers will want to see what Ryan does next. Agent: Lucy Luck, C&W.

March 15, 2022
Beth Crowe enters college as a loner with a lot of emotional baggage and family history. Once considered a potential Olympic contender, she has returned to swimming at a less competitive level, allowing her to comfortably exist in a strict training routine. But it's not long before her outgoing roommate, Sadie, discovers that Beth is the granddaughter of famed Irish poet Ben Crowe, whose genius, and the mysterious circumstances around his death, make him a literary icon. Enter Justin, an ambitious, handsome graduate student and Crowe scholar. Justin's attention to Beth is initially academic but blossoms into a romantic affair, prompting a renewed interest in her grandfather's life (and death) and uncovering layers of secrets, lies, and betrayal. Ryan's debut is a joy to read. In it, literature is celebrated as a vehicle for creativity and truth, and Ryan's ability to create a realistic literary icon, complete with poems and fictional scholarly research, is impressive. Emotional, clever, and humorous, Holding Her Breath will engross readers with its academic atmosphere and family drama.

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April 1, 2022
An Irish college student grapples with the aftermath of a breakdown and her poet grandfather's legacy. Because the literary world can't resist comparisons, Irish writer Ryan's debut coming-of-age novel will inevitably be compared to the work of Sally Rooney. But there's no need to bring Rooney into the discussion. This is an assured, absorbing first novel that follows a young woman as she begins the delicate work of finding out who she is and where she stands in relation to her history. Beth Crowe is juggling the demands of college and family, making new friends, and struggling to cope with two legacies: her own lost potential as an athlete and her Irish poet grandfather's suicide by drowning, which happened before she was born. A competitive swimmer, Beth is recovering from a breakdown that most likely ended her Olympic dreams. She's swimming again, learning that the discipline and repetition of an athlete's routine are hard to shake (as are her father's expectations). She has left the home she shares with her mother and grandmother and moved into a dorm, and her presence on the college campus has the literature department reeling. Everyone wants answers about her grandfather and his work. She begins a flirtation with Justin, an older instructor who would love access to her grandfather's archives (her grandmother refuses all such requests). They embark on an affair, and as Beth develops her own reasons for keeping secrets about and from Justin, she discovers surprising new revelations about her grandparents and her own capacity for acceptance. Throughout the novel, water plays an important role as both balm and torment, a way for Beth to test and soothe herself, a way for her troubled grandfather to escape. But Ryan never goes too far with metaphor: This is a crisply written, empathetic novel. Ryan offers a realistic, perceptive view of the early college years, reflecting how difficult but liberating the first steps to adulthood can be. An absorbing, nuanced coming-of-age novel.

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