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About Breathing Lessons

Unfolding over the course of a single, emotionally fraught day, this stunning novel encompasses a lifetime of dreams, regrets, and reckonings. Maggie and Ira Moran are on a road trip from Baltimore, Maryland, to Deer Lick, Pennsylvania, to attend the funeral of a friend. Along the way, they reflect on the state of their marriage and its trials and its triumphs—through their quarrels, their routines, and their ability to tolerate each other’s faults with patience and affection. Where Maggie is quirky, lovable, and mischievous, Ira is practical, methodical, and mired in reason. What begins as a day trip becomes a revelatory and unexpected journey as Ira and Maggie rediscover the strength of their bond and the joy of having somebody with whom to share the ride, bumps and all. Regarded by many as Tyler’s seminal work, Breathing Lessons celebrates the small miracles and magic of truly knowing someone, and evokes Jane Austen, Emma Straub, and other masters of the literary marriage. “A wonderful novel, glowing with the insight and compassion of an artist’s touch.”—The Boston Globe