From the beginning I was totally hooked with this book. Each chapter takes you not only to a different person, but also a different country and a different period of history. From the very start I was wondering how on earth these three people could possibly be linked and I was amazed at how they eventually came together. The final link isn't revealed until the end of the book and is quite remarkable. Each character has different traumas and troubles to face up to and at times you can't believe how they have the strength to carry on.

One chapter we are in 1899 Paris, then the next we are in mid 1950s Norway and finally we travel to 1980s Canada, each time following the next part of that particular characters story. Some of the chapters are very thought provoking and we can see how far we have come in changing attitudes towards traumatic events in our lives. We also are taught that we shouldn't judge people until we know the full reasons why actions are taken. People can become desperate when faced with adversity and we should never judge why people do certain things.

It is very hard to review this book without giving any details away, which is something I strive to do. I don't like to give too many details away. All I can say is read this book. It is very thought provoking and an amazing read. The book is beautifully written, with many passages causing me to think more deeply rather than just reading for the sake of reading a book. It is one that will stay with me for a long while and I still find myself thinking about it a week after finishing it.

Many thanks to the publishers and NetGalley for an advanced copy in return for an honest review.

Coming Up for Air took its inspiration from a true story, and this is evident throughout the book, although it doesn’t interfere with the rich and clever storytelling.

We move through three different timeframes: Paris of the late 1890s, Norway in the 1950s and recent to present day Canada. I loved the ambition of Sarah Leipciger’s story that spanned centuries and was hugely impressed with the immense detail of each world she created.

This is an epic novel about fierce love, grief and human resilience, revealing the remarkable reverberations our lives can create, long after our deaths.

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 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 power of storytelling and the immeasurable impact of every human life

The authors writing is utterly sublime. It is also compelling. You must read this beautiful, riveting novel.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Random House UK for an advance copy in return for a fair and honest review

Drowning seems strange theme for a novel yet it had potential in this weaving of three lives across three centuries for whom drowning and the water of nature had a different, compelling presence. I wanted to be hooked by the idea and then by the story but generally I found the story telling too factual for my style, too detached. The idea does work, eventually and the interconnecting of the stories unfolds by small degrees. On reflection I approached Sarah Leipciger’s second book with too much expectation of style and storytelling. I thought it would be a nicer read, where instead I found harsh edges of life I didn’t really want to enter. But for that I have to take responsibility and looking back now to see that there are three well drawn central characters, with some neatly coloured secondary and tertiary figures. It may not be my style but it has stretched my reading repertoire and challenged me with some harder realities in life; and I am glad of it.

Extraordinary tale of the intertwining of the tragic life events of the individuals that inspired the quest for the persona of Rescuci Anne, the CPR model used throughout the last 70 years and still in use today. L’Inconnue de la Seine was an unidentified young French woman who drowned herself in the Seine at the end of the 19th century. The beauty of her death mask captivated the aristocracy and artists alike during the first half of the 20th century and was considered the only choice for the identity of the CPR model by its creator, a Norwegian toy maker in the 1950s.

Beautifully written and sad to read. I found each of the stories interesting and the scenes were easy to visualise

What an exquisite, ambitious and beautifully-written book. I loved The Mountain Can Wait, but this was even better. Deeply moving.

This book combines three stories in different time periods, with a common theme of drowning. The opening story, set in nineteenth century Paris, was fascinating and I wish the whole book had been this one story. The other two stories I found much less interesting, and the constant switches between stories was jarring, so I never felt fully immersed in each one. I did enjoy the fact that two of the stories were based around actual events, and I immediately looked up the death mask upon finishing the book.

Coming Up for Air is beautiful and very, very sad. It is story of three people across different time periods tangentially connected by one image. The first of these is a young woman who takes her own life in the River Seine. She is very fragile after having her heart broken, and I desperately wanted her to have a happy ending. The next is a self-absorbed toy maker, Pieter, who suffers a devastating loss that nobody would get over. The last story is that of resilient Anouk, who struggles with cystic fibrosis and finds meaning in writing and swimming. I would heartily recommend this book.

What links a woman servant in Paris in 1899, a toymaker in Norway in 1921 and a woman with cystic fibrosis in 2017? You will never guess, in fact I was beginning to think that there was no connection until very near the end. There are themes of loss, of water and drowning - any one could have been the link. Each story is carefully told in alternating chapters, and the author really brings these characters alive so that you care what happens to them, although Pieter's story is slightly less engaging than the others. The writing is beautiful, maybe slightly over-descriptive in parts (I did skim a bit). However, I thought it was clever and I loved it.

Coming up for air by Sarah Leipciger is three stories in one. The main one it’s 1899 of the banks of the River Seine a heartbroken woman jumps into icy river to her death which, causes a series of events later. A Toy maker in 1950 Norway near a breakthrough of invention that changes people’s lives and present-day Canada a journalist with Cistus Fibrosis is drowning in her own lungs and does everything to try and live.
Even though I found this book to be well written, I just got so annoyed that every time you seem to get to know what happened in one story. It quickly changed to a different one so quickly, that you couldn’t remember what happened in the last. Because of this I lost interest in this book. I also couldn’t see what the significance was between both stories that joined them together. I DNF this book at 50%.
Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for a copy of this book.

Even though I liked this book I found it difficult to be equally interested in the three storylines. It was the first one that caught most of my attention, the second one less so, and the third one about cystic fibrosis was fascinating again. The book is written in a language that flows and the author has created characters that are alive and believable. The link between the three storylines is strong but I found it difficult that just when I was getting into one of the stories, it skipped to another one. A minor inconvenience in a well-written interesting book.

I really enjoyed this book of three people separated by time and place, the river links them all, and particularly the drowning which sets the scene at the beginning. Themes of disappointment and tragedy are at the heart of these lives, the minutiae of their worlds interrupted by instances of quite nonchalant cruelty. The natural world suffers at the hands of man, and nature it seems has its revenge. Over all this there is a connection between the characters, and this gives us hope.

Beautiful prose and well researched historical fact. A book that I found a truly harrowing experience. It was a real fight not to call it a day. It's an amazing piece of work but so close to home it really was a struggle to make it through to the end. It's a novel that won't be for everyone and one that has the power to grieve. The pen is indeed mightier than the sword.

Thank you to Sarah Leipciger, Random House, and NetGalley for the ARC of Coming Up For Air.
Deeply moving and beautifully written. A stunning three part story linked by river water and an incredible sense of loss and rejuvenation. Superb!

Coming up for Air is a very absorbing read. Intertwining stories brought together in a stunning finale. I could not put this book down - I had to find out what on earth could bring together such disparate biographies and seeming autobiography, told over different time zones and across different countries. Often heart-rending but told with such compassion and in such elegant literary style this is a book to savour, a book you will go on thinking about long after you have turned the last page and read the acknowledgements.
So many of the characters are drowning in one way or another and the trope of gasping for air, of being unable to breathe could not have elicited a title other than 'Coming up for Air' and is far more worthy of the title than the similarly titled Orwell novel.

A lovely, if tragic, read. Three intertwined stories, three protagonists separated by time and location culminating in a beautiful story. Thanks to the publisher and netgalley for an ARC egalley.

Coming up for air is a beautiful, moving story about breathing and water – both metaphors for life itself! It follows three different, but brilliantly drawn characters, in three very different povs/ narratives. The links between these narratives are delicate and you need to pay attention but it’s an immensely rewarding reading experience. The story moves along portmanteau fashion from 19th C to present day. Historical detail and a certain amount of true story is also woven in. If you’re looking for a powerful, lyrical read that’s a bit different, I highly recommend this.

I loved this book and read it in one afternoon. The three stories are fascinating individually, but when you realise the threads that bind the stories together, the whole thing is outstanding.
I felt genuinely moved by these stories, and know others will too.

What an outstanding read, I’m going to be recommending this far and wide.

Linked by the themes of breathing and of water, three different stories span the narrative of Coming Up for Air:

We follow Anouk’s life in the present day as she negotiates a constant battle to breathe with cystic fibrosis and it’s constant demands upon her body, her relief found in open air swimming and being under the water; back at the end of the 19th century, a young woman in Paris, worn down by life, seeks out the water as an end to her life; and in 1950s Norway, Pieter, a toy maker by trade, his life forever changed by a drowning, is sought out by reputation to create the prototype of the Resusci Anne doll

Every single character in this book is so well fleshed out, so tangible, as are the locations. The emotions the characters experience are raw and harsh, and you cannot help but care for them. I do love a book which centres around a true story, and Sarah Leipciger explains exactly this detail precisely at the end. All round brilliant and highly recommended.