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Getting our Breath Back

About the Book

Getting our Breath Back

Getting Our Breath Back is a stunning, multi-layered story that follows the loves of three women as they move from the chaos of the sixties to the disillusionment of the seventies.

Violet, Lilly, and Rose are three sisters who are trying to find their place in a changing world. Violet, the eldest, grows up believing in the myth of the Southern belle-only to discover that good manners and genteel charm aren't going to make her marriage any easier. Lilly, an ex-Black Panther and writer caught up in the stormy aftermath of the sixties, shuts out this new world of confusion with heroin. Rose, the youngest, is a sculptor who has shaped herself in the image of an independent black woman. But she carries a secret heartache that resonates in the life of her daughter, Imani, who is searching for the father she has never known.

Careening through the chaos and optimism of the sixties through the disappointments of the seventies, Getting Our Breath Back is an earthy and atmospheric story of emotional turmoil and self-reinvention.

Getting our Breath Back
by Shawne Johnson

  • Publication Date: June 1, 2002
  • Hardcover: 261 pages
  • Publisher: Dutton Adult
  • ISBN-10: 0525946543
  • ISBN-13: 9780525946540