And Breathe by Leonora Meriel

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Laeticia, Ivan, and Francis, three individuals unknown to each other, embark on a ten-day vipassana course in Thailand. Ten days of silent meditation to reflect on their lives and hopefully restore peace within themselves.

Leonora Meriel pens a different kind of story in, And Breathe. Each chapter is devoted to one character and invites the reader to get inside that particular character’s head as they work through the ten-days of meditation. Readers are taken on a guided tour of what the character is feeling as they focus on their breath and body. But it is when their mind wanders and they ruminate on their past does the reader learn what brought them to this silent retreat in the first place.

I enjoyed this well written and intelligent read. While there’s quite a bit of narration, the style works for this novel. There’s enough action within the character’s heads, as well as some outside, to move the story at a decent pace. And the ending was completely unsuspected.




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