Breath
Like Water
Anna
Jarzab
On Sale Date: May 19, 2020
9781335050236, 133505023X
Hardcover
$18.99 USD, $23.99 CAD
Young Adult Fiction / Sports & Recreation
/ Water Sports
Ages 13 And Up
416 pages
ABOUT
THE BOOK:
This beautifully lyrical contemporary novel
features an elite teen swimmer with Olympic dreams, plagued by injury and
startled by unexpected romance, who struggles to balance training with family
and having a life. For fans of Sarah Dessen, Julie Murphy and Miranda
Kenneally.
Susannah Ramos has always loved the water. A
swimmer whose early talent made her a world champion, Susannah was poised for
greatness in a sport that demands so much of its young. But an inexplicable
slowdown has put her Olympic dream in jeopardy, and Susannah is fighting to
keep her career afloat when two important people enter her life: a new coach
with a revolutionary training strategy, and a charming fellow swimmer named
Harry Matthews.
As Susannah begins her long and painful climb
back to the top, her friendship with Harry blossoms into passionate and
supportive love. But Harry is facing challenges of his own, and even as their
bond draws them closer together, other forces work to tear them apart. As she
struggles to balance her needs with those of the people who matter most to her,
Susannah will learn the cost--and the beauty--of trying to achieve something
extraordinary.
Excerpt
PROLOGUE
1,063 days until
US Olympic Team Trials
FINA World Aquatics Championships
Budapest, Hungary
Women’s 200m Intermediate Medley Finals
The water is breathing. At least, that’s how it seems.
I’ve always imagined it as a living thing, benevolent and obedient and
faithful. A gentle beast at first, like a pony, but over time something faster.
A thoroughbred, maybe. A cheetah sprinting across a flat, grassy plain.
But, of course, the water isn’t
breathing—it’s rippling, with the echoing wakes of eight elite swimmers as they
poured themselves into one last swim, one final chance to grab the golden ring.
Now they’re gone, and in half a minute, I’ll be right where they were, reaching
for my own shot at glory.
This is my first international
competition. I turned fourteen in May, so I’m the youngest member of Team USA.
In January, nobody knew who I was, but by my birthday I’d broken the women’s
200 IM record in my age group twice and finished first in the same event—my
best—at World Championship Trials. My summer of speed earned me a lane here in
Budapest. All I have to do now is not screw it up.
Earlier, in the semifinals, I
clocked my fastest time ever in this event, and I’m coming into finals seeded
third overall. I have to beat that by almost a second if I want to win.
The announcer introduces me over
the loudspeaker. I wave to the crowd but my mind is far away, already in the
pool, charting out my swim. I shake out my limbs and jump to get my blood
pumping, then climb onto the block. I adjust my goggles, my cap, my shoulders.
These little rituals feel solid and reliable. The rest is as insubstantial as a
dream you’re aware of while you’re dreaming it.
“Take your mark—”
The signal sounds and I’m in the
pool. My mind lags half a second behind my body, registering every breath,
stroke and turn only after it happens.
First: butterfly, arms soaring
over the water, fingertips skimming the surface.
Then: backstroke, concentrating
on the lines in the ceiling while waves boil around me.
After that: breaststroke,
stretching, pulling, kicking, gliding.
And finally: freestyle, bursting
off the wall like a racehorse released from a starting gate.
I go six strokes without taking
a breath and snap into my highest gear for a mad-dash last push, coasting along
the razor’s edge of my perfectly timed taper. No thinking, just doing. No
drag, only flight.
My hand touches the wall, and my
eyes begin to burn. It’s over. Instinctively, I look for my coach. Dave’s on
the sidelines, frowning, and I think: I blew it.
He notices me watching and
breaks into a rare grin. Hopeful, I turn to the board. I can’t find my name,
so I force myself to look at the top spot. There it is: RAMOS. Number
freaking one.
I whoop and blow kisses at the people in the stands. They’re on
their feet, chanting, “USA! USA!” American flags billow like sheets.
It cost my parents a fortune to
fly themselves and my sister all the way to Europe on such short notice,
credit cards stretched to their limits. I can’t even see them in the crowd, but
I know they’re somewhere in that jubilant crush of people. My heart feels so
full it’s like a balloon about to pop.
As soon as I’m out of the water,
Dave wraps me in a bear hug.
“How do you feel?” he asks.
“Great!” I sigh and shake out my
arms. “Tired.”
“Gold, Susannah,” he says. His
voice is tight with something like awe.
Gold. It doesn’t feel
real yet—won’t, until that medal hangs around my neck, until I can hold it in
my hands while the national anthem blooms through the natatorium speakers with
patriotic brio. Maybe not even then. I could have more wins here, but right
now, this seems like more than enough.
“You’re a world champion,” Dave
says. “Next, I’m going to make you an Olympian.”
Excerpted from Breath Like
Water by Anna Jarzab, Copyright © 2020 by Anna Jarzab. Published by Inkyard Press.
ABOUT
THE AUTHOR:
Anna Jarzab is a Midwesterner turned New
Yorker. She lives and works in New York City and is the author of such books as
Red Dirt, All Unquiet Things, The Opposite of Hallelujah, and the Many-Worlds
series. Visit her online at annajarzab.com and on Twitter, @ajarzab. Instagram: @ajarzab
Author website: https://www.annajarzab.com/
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