The Water-Breather

The Water-Breather

by Ben Faccini (Author)

Synopsis

The agonies of a painfully sensitive young boy as he tries to minimize the terror he sees looming around him. Amid the stifling heat of the Umbrian and southern French countryside, the story concerns a family's grief for a happiness that they cannot restore, and of one boy's obsession with trying.

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More Information

Format: Hardcover
Pages: 304
Edition: First Edition
Publisher: Flamingo
Published: 02 Jan 2002

ISBN 10: 0007118325
ISBN 13: 9780007118328

Media Reviews
Jean-Pio is the middle child, sandwiched between Giulio, his younger brother, and Duccio, the eldest. Jean-Pio is eight years old in the spring of 1978, and his boyhood is spent travelling in an automobile across Europe with his father, Pado, and mother, Aga. His father is a scientist, who seems to spend his life attending medical conferences in Italy, France, Germany and England. Jean-Pio, stuck on the back seat of the family Volvo, watches the red petrol warning light to see if it comes on and concentrates on avoiding a crash. Meanwhile, his mother and father argue and quarrel continuously. Every spring they drive to Italy and spend two weeks with their Italian grandparents. As a study of a young boy with all his fears and feelings on the surface, it is a sad tale, beautifully crafted.
Author Bio
ben faccini grew up in rural France, but was educated as a teenager in England. Since graduation he has lived mostly in Paris, working latterly for UNESCO, where he has been involved in initiatives to alleviate the condition of the world's 'street children'. He now lives in London.