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Your Breath in Charcoal
“I said, ‘the pair of us look like some scratch ‘n win tickets,’ and Earn said, ‘More like scratch ‘n lose.’”
Knickle is a young Islander with no friends, direction, or purpose in his life. When he drives to northern New Brunswick to pick up an acquaintance’s brother from a mental health hospital, the pair make a sudden decision to travel further west to try to find a life amidst the chaos of Upper Canada. In the big city of Tah-ron-ah for the first time, Knickle discovers love, hope, and profound loss.
A hilarious, sensitive, and heady working-class odyssey rife with metaphorical richness and references to literature, film, and 90s music, Your Breath in Charcoal peers into the mind of its irrepressible and relentlessly quotable East Coast everyman. A follow-up to Some Hellish, Herring’s breathtaking Atwood Gibson Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize-winning debut novel, Your Breath in Charcoal marks yet another galvanizing entry into the East Coast literary canon.
Knickle is a young Islander with no friends, direction, or purpose in his life. When he drives to northern New Brunswick to pick up an acquaintance’s brother from a mental health hospital, the pair make a sudden decision to travel further west to try to find a life amidst the chaos of Upper Canada. In the big city of Tah-ron-ah for the first time, Knickle discovers love, hope, and profound loss.
A hilarious, sensitive, and heady working-class odyssey rife with metaphorical richness and references to literature, film, and 90s music, Your Breath in Charcoal peers into the mind of its irrepressible and relentlessly quotable East Coast everyman. A follow-up to Some Hellish, Herring’s breathtaking Atwood Gibson Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize-winning debut novel, Your Breath in Charcoal marks yet another galvanizing entry into the East Coast literary canon.
328 pages, Kindle Edition
First published September 1, 2026
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
September 30, 2026
Had Ricky left his Boys in the Trailer Park, got a BA at Dal, and started writing (I counted 4 “rocket surgery”s).
September 8, 2026
A wondrous novel from start to finish.
October 14, 2026
Your Breath in Charcoal by Nicholas Herring follows Knickle, a young Islander from Prince Edward Island who heads to Toronto, where he tries to find his place in the world. Longlisted for the 2026 Giller Prize, it is an ambitious novel that mixes working-class life, friendship, love and loss with plenty of philosophical musings and cultural references.
I had difficulty getting used to the voice in this book. Knickle has a distinctive way of looking at the world, and there is no shortage of observations, digressions and colourful turns of phrase. Initially, I persevered, hoping I would eventually get into the rhythm of the writing, but after about 100 pages it began to grate. The constant stream of asides and metaphors became wearing, and I found myself more irritated by the narration than interested in what Knickle had to say.
I can appreciate the ambition and originality here, and there are moments when the humour and observations work well. However, I found the writing overly self-conscious, as though every thought needed to be dressed up in an elaborate turn of phrase. I wanted more space for the story and characters to breathe, rather than having to negotiate the narrator’s voice on every page.
I can understand why this book has attracted attention, but it was ultimately a struggle for me. The style overwhelmed the substance, and I never quite found my way into the story. Unfortunately, being longlisted for the Giller Prize didn’t make this one any more enjoyable for me.
I had difficulty getting used to the voice in this book. Knickle has a distinctive way of looking at the world, and there is no shortage of observations, digressions and colourful turns of phrase. Initially, I persevered, hoping I would eventually get into the rhythm of the writing, but after about 100 pages it began to grate. The constant stream of asides and metaphors became wearing, and I found myself more irritated by the narration than interested in what Knickle had to say.
I can appreciate the ambition and originality here, and there are moments when the humour and observations work well. However, I found the writing overly self-conscious, as though every thought needed to be dressed up in an elaborate turn of phrase. I wanted more space for the story and characters to breathe, rather than having to negotiate the narrator’s voice on every page.
I can understand why this book has attracted attention, but it was ultimately a struggle for me. The style overwhelmed the substance, and I never quite found my way into the story. Unfortunately, being longlisted for the Giller Prize didn’t make this one any more enjoyable for me.
October 2, 2026
There were some really wonderful introspections but I think the book was too long and I began to get irritated by all of the similes.
Ya know, it’s never too late to invent time travel. 70
You think it’s possible to remember something you never experienced? 105
Myths are things which never happened. 116
A great pain always subsumes a lesser one. 431
The death of payphones was well above our pay grade. 463
And isn’t this one of life’s central projects: to keep your heart alive and new and wondrous? 626
…finding yourself may require losing yourself in another human being. 699
To share certain things with people, to put them out into the world, is to immediately reduce them, their impact, in a way that feels traitorous. 727
Being attentive to the little things will keep a person sane. 1178
Ya know, it’s never too late to invent time travel. 70
You think it’s possible to remember something you never experienced? 105
Myths are things which never happened. 116
A great pain always subsumes a lesser one. 431
The death of payphones was well above our pay grade. 463
And isn’t this one of life’s central projects: to keep your heart alive and new and wondrous? 626
…finding yourself may require losing yourself in another human being. 699
To share certain things with people, to put them out into the world, is to immediately reduce them, their impact, in a way that feels traitorous. 727
Being attentive to the little things will keep a person sane. 1178
October 18, 2026
Really quite good. Unadbashedly Canadian, it does a great job of capturing the inner world of a typical insecure male in his earlty twenties as he is buffeted by life. The characters stoicism reminded me a bit of Stoner - keeps carrying on.
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September 24, 2026Started this - just not in the head space for it at the moment I think.
Will come back to at a later date when I have more time.
Will come back to at a later date when I have more time.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews