Shadows Hold Their Breath - by Sherry Robinson (Paperback)

About the Book

"..takes place with the backdrop of the 1970s feminist movement and in the final years of the Vietnam War. It tells the story of Kat Hunter, a woman who decides that the only way she can understand her unresolved grief and discover who she is meant to be is to do the unthinkable - the unforgivable. In October 1979, six years after suffering the loss of Beth, her dear friend and sister-in-law, to enemy mortar fire near the village of Quang Ngai, Vietnam, Kat begins to question everything about her traditional life. In the middle of the night she slips away from her home in Lexington, Kentucky, her husband, and her three young daughters and boards a Greyhound bus with no specific destination in mind. On the bus, she meets Molly, a young woman who reminds her of Beth. With nowhere else to go, Kat follows Molly and Molly's boyfriend, Jake, to Gatlinburg, Tennessee. Once there, Kat joins the artist community and guards the secret that she is married and has abandoned her children to the care of her husband. Kat's journey of self-discovery ultimately leads her down an unexpected path --but what is she willing to sacrifice for that journey?." -- Back cover.

Book Synopsis

"A woman's fateful decision colors and molds her future." Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

A must read for fans of Henrik Ibsen's A Doll's House and Kate Chopin's The Awakening.

Sherry Robinson, award-winning author of Blessed, returns with a daring novel about social taboos, secrets, grief, and self-discovery.

Shadows Hold Their Breath takes place with the backdrop of the 1970s feminist movement and in the final years of the Vietnam War. It tells the story of Kat Hunter, a woman who decides that the only way she can understand her unresolved grief and discover who she is meant to be is to do the unthinkable-the unforgivable. In October 1979, six years after suffering the loss of Beth, her dear friend and sister-in-law, to enemy mortar fire near the village of Quảng Ngãi, Vietnam, Kat begins to question everything about her traditional life. In the middle of the night, she slips away from her home in Lexington, Kentucky, her husband, and her three young daughters and boards a bus with no specific destination in mind. On the bus, she meets Molly, a young woman who reminds her of Beth. With nowhere else to go, Kat follows Molly and Molly's boyfriend, Jake, to Gatlinburg, Tennessee. Once there, Kat joins the artists community and guards the secret that she is married and has abandoned her children to the care of her husband.

Kat's journey of self-discovery ultimately leads her down an unexpected path-but what is she willing to sacrifice for that journey?

Review Quotes

"A woman's fateful decision colors and molds her future in [Sherry] Robinson's third novel.

Kat Hunter, a model wife, is haunted by her sister-in-law's death years earlier in Vietnam-Beth was her best friend-and by inchoate feelings of suffocation. One night, she steals away from her husband and three daughters as they sleep, hoping to come back home in a couple of weeks-as a better wife and mother, cured of her malaise. But weeks turn into months as she makes a new life for herself in Gatlinburg, Tennessee. A bitter divorce ensues, and it looks as if she will never see her daughters again. Kat hides the details of her past from new friends Molly Fisher, a free spirit whom she meets on the bus during her first night away; Molly's boyfriend, Jake, who turns out to be a violent abuser; and, most importantly, Wyatt Jenkins, whom Kat eventually marries. She lets people assume that she fled from an abusive husband, a husband who was in fact not abusive but just a clueless male chauvinist. When that truth comes out, she is punished anew by many in the community and even, for a time, by Wyatt, who is confused and hurt. To Robinson's credit, the ending is not the "Kumbaya" outcome some readers might hope for. The characters are well drawn, as are the tight community of Gatlinburg and the beautiful surrounding countryside. The story is punctuated by letters Beth sent back to Kat from Vietnam. Does Kat regret that she is not the brave spirit that Beth was? Has she always been living the wrong life? In truth, we are never quite clear about what caused her to leave home. This is a story about grabbing what happiness one can while also living with pain that may never really go away. That is what makes it an honest novel for grown-ups.

An impressive and thoughtful exploration of the mistakes good people make."

-Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

"Like [Henrik] Ibsen's A Doll's House and [Kate] Chopin's The Awakening, Shadows Hold Their Breath explores one woman's decision to leave her husband and children rather than crumble under the weight of patriarchal roles. Kat is also burdened by grief and an unspoken love that perhaps even in her nascent self-awareness is still taboo. The novel offers no easy answers, no pure absolution, just Kat's honest quest to accept-and live-her truth."

-MARIE MANILLA, author of The Patron Saint of Ugly

"Shadows Hold Their Breath is a complicated story about motherhood, grief, and self-discovery. Kat is a troubled, empathetic character searching for independence and understanding. Writing in spare, descriptive prose, Robinson asks difficult and important questions about responsibility and independence without offering facile answers."

-CARTER SICKELS, author The Prettiest Star

"Shadows Hold Their Breath dispels myths of maternal negligence and malice. Robinson demonstrates that there are no heroes or villains in most families, only the choices of a particular season and the reverberating consequences. Set in the wake of the Vietnam War, against the backdrop of social unrest and shifting patriarchy, this novel of identity will leave you rooting for a character whose choices could easily be condemned. Robinson's novel is a beautiful exercise in mercy."

-JULIE HENSLEY, author of Landfall: A Ring of Stories