Why read The Trick Is To Keep Breathing?

Book cover of The Trick Is To Keep Breathing

Book description

From the corner of a darkened room Joy Stone watches herself. As memories of the deaths of her lover and mother surface unbidden, life for Joy narrows - to negotiating each day, each encounter, each second; to finding the trick to keep living. Told with shattering clarity and wry wit,…

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Women's fiction

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Why read it?

2 authors picked The Trick Is To Keep Breathing as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

Elissa Soave

Author

This magnificent book made me realize perhaps more than any other by a Scottish female writer that the lives of working-class Scottish women are unique, important, and worth writing/reading about.

The book tells the story of Joy, a woman whose mental health is slowly crumbling before our eyes. Galloway masterfully tells this story in the first person so that we are right inside Joy’s mind. We discover a background of abuse and recent bereavement, leading to issues with alcohol abuse and anorexia.

That should all make for a depressing read, and it is of course heart-breaking at times but it…

From Elissa's list on The best Scottish novels centring working-class women.

Iain Hood

Author

The moment of madness in Galloway’s novel is happening in the present continuous from the first page of protagonist Joy Stone’s narration.

Reality is happening and disintegrating right now for Joy, and we as readers are tipped into this reality, this disintegration, with her. From the off, we know we are in for a rollercoaster of storytelling as this young teacher works back to some semblance of sense that she might make from her experiences, memories, and emotions.

The hope and despair, stoicism, and fear of the title of the book may be all she and we can cling to:…

From Iain's list on The best Scottish books about moments of madness.