Coming Up for Air Review

Photo Courtesy of House of Anansi

Content warning: death of a child, suicide, postpartum depression, mental illness, death of an animal, miscarriage, cancer, chronic illness

Sarah Leipciger’s stunning novel Coming Up for Air takes a look at how one event can impact people decades in the future. In 1899 an unknown young woman drowned in the River Seine and this ended up impacting a grieving toy-maker in 1950s Norway, which ended up impacting a modern day Canadian journalist who is battling a chronic disease. While Leiciger has created a unique story, Coming Up for Air has its roots in real life events.

The characters in Coming Up for Air are all fleshed out incredibly well. Leipciger has taken time to craft fully developed characters with their own set of flaws and backstories. The reader will follow L’Inconnue de la Seine (the unknown woman of the Seine) as she questions her life in France during the early 20th century. The reader will also follow Pieter, inspired by the toymaker who designed Resusci Anne in Norway during the 1950s. Lastly, the reader looks at Anouk, a Canadian living in modern times as she reflects on her life before the opportunity for a life changing surgery. As the story progresses the reader will slowly learn how these seemingly unrelated people have been impacted by the past together.

Leipciger’s prose is stunning. This is a novel that you cannot rush, it is incredibly well written and has a good mixture of character-driven and plot-driven writing. Leipciger looks at how a character's decisions and choices not only impact those around them, but also how they impact people in the future. Readers will need to pay attention as there is a lot of jumping around between the various characters and each of their individual stories are complex. While it may take a while for the reader to finally make the connection to these three stories, Coming Up for Air is a beautiful piece of historical fiction that’s written like literary fiction. I would recommend Coming up for Air to anyone who enjoys either historical fiction or literary fiction.

Coming Up for Air Summary

On the banks of the River Seine in 1899, a young woman takes her final breath before plunging into the icy water. Although she does not know it, her decision will set in motion an astonishing chain of events. It will lead to 1950s Norway, where a grieving toy-maker is on the cusp of a transformative invention, all the way to present-day Ottawa Valley in Canada, where a journalist, battling a terrible disease, risks everything for one last chance to live.

Taking inspiration from a remarkable true story, Coming Up for Air is a bold, richly imagined novel about the transcendent power of storytelling and the immeasurable impact of every human life. The legacy of the woman at its heart touches the lives of us all today, and this book reveals just how.

Summary from House of Anansi