Breath

Bruce Pike, now a paramedic, reaches a dead teenage boy too late to help, and understands better than his partner how the boy died; the scene sends him back to his own adolescence. Growing up in a small sawmilling town within earshot of the sea, Pikelet, as he is called, makes friends with Loonie, the town's wildest kid, and the two cycle to the coast to teach themselves to surf, terrified and hooked at once. Sando, a solitary older surfer, takes the pair in, shows them secret breaks and bigger and bigger waves, and teaches them about risk. As the boys compete ever harder and Sando's American wife Eva draws Pikelet into her life, the dares go further than a fifteen-year-old can handle.

AI-generated summary

About the book

Form

Novel

Genres

Coming of age (assigned by AI)

Set in

Australia, 1970s

First published

2008

Author's age

48 when first published

ISBN

9780241015308 (Hamish Hamilton, Australia)

9780374116347 (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, United States)

9780143009580 (Penguin, Australia)

9780312428396 (Picador, United States)

More

Wikidata