Book Review No 30: Shallow Breath By Sara Foster

Growing up on the beautiful West Australian coast, all Desi ever wanted to do was work with dolphins. As a teenager that dream comes true when she gets a job at the Atlantis marine park near her home town. Devastated when the park is closed, she is thrilled to meet Connor, a young American who is just as passionate about dolphins as she is. Their relationship is passionate but brief when he is tragically killed, leaving her pregnant and alone. She works hard to provide a living for her daughter Maya, but is forced to leave her own passions behind for the sake of practicality. Then one impulsive action on Desi’s behalf results in her spending time in prison, leaving behind a splintered family and a community that ostracises her.

Spanning several continents and told via multiple points of view, Shallow Breath has many threads that join together as the story progresses. Told both in present and past tense, you come to learn of just what has happened to Desi and what keeps motivating her to embrace what she is so passionate about. Suspenseful and compelling, you cannot help but be drawn into the ever evolving story, while gradually learning the back story of the main characters. I thought the multi POV worked well and didn’t ever feel like I lost my sense of time and place.

Underlying all the family drama and the element of mystery of the past is the theme of wildlife conservation, primarily dolphins. Sara Foster has been extremely thorough in her research of the topic, managing to present a lot of (at times) alarming factual information within the confines of a fictional story. At times I thought there was some blurring between “showing” and “telling” this information, but can appreciate the difficulty of blending fact into fiction. In saying that though you cannot help but be affected by the plight of wildlife and horrified at some of the barbaric practices that still occur today. It certainly gave me an appreciation of just what conservation activists believe in and the realisation that without them many, many more animals would be extinct today.

Although not quite as suspenseful as her previous novels, Shallow Breath takes you on a different journey, exploring how choices always have consequences and celebrating the bravery of those people willing to stand up for what they believe in, no matter what the outcome may be.