The Place Between Breaths by An Na

I've been a huge fan of An Na's writing since I read A Step from Heaven in ninth grade. It was the first Korean-American novel I had ever read, and I was blown away with how much feeling and detail Na could fit in such compact writing, (Na could write about pasta boiling and I’d read it.) This morning, I reread her latest novel, The Place Between Breaths, and finished it before noon.

Eighteen-year-old Grace King interns at the prestigious lab where her father recruits scientists to find a cure for schizophrenia, the disease that whisked her Korean-born mother away from them over a decade ago. He has devoted his life to this research, hoping science has the answers and hoping that one day, his wife will be found.

As Grace tries to navigate the impact of her mother’s disappearance and her dad’s distant behavior, her friend Hannah is pregnant. Grace tries to offer her ways out, but Hannah claims her casual boyfriend, Dave, loves her. How can Grace believe in love? Her father--an adoptee who always hoped to find true love and have a family--thought he had found this in his marriage, only to have his wife leave without a trace.

And something else is bothering Grace. She hasn't been herself. She doesn't look good. Her friend Will from the lab is worried about her. Stephanie at the diner she frequents is worried about her. Grace tells everyone she is fine, but a different reality is unwinding in her head. She's always hearing a train, She sees a woman at the bus stop who's suddenly not there, not even her footprints in the snow. And is the research at the lab the only thing that's really keeping her father from being fully present? 

This is the third time I’ve read The Place Between Breaths. It’s a slim book that can be read in one sitting, but it has left a lasting impression on me. I always find myself leafing through its page as long after I finished the book. Na’s lyrical writing of Grace’s grief from losing her mother and her growing battle with mental health made me feel choked up during my second read. And today, I picked up on some small details that I hadn't noticed before that were valuable to the plot. The ambiguous POVs keep me wondering what could become of Grace and what her father and/or Will felt as they witnessed someone they love break down.

The Place Between Breaths is a dark, gripping, and beautiful masterpiece that I highly recommend to anyone who loves literary fiction and wants a deeper understanding of schizophrenia.