About the Book
Title: A Single Breath
Author: Amanda Apthorpe
Genre: Literary fiction
“Life’s beginning and its end hinged on a single breath as though
the rest was conducted in its pause.”
When the first hate letter
arrives in the days after her patient, Bonnie's death, obstetrician Doctor Dana
Cavanagh reads it with shaking hands before placing it next to the small news
article of the court's verdict: not
guilty.
Hate letters continue to trickle
in, but one stands out from the others—a cryptic message with a tiny marble
stone, its origin—Kos, Greece, the birthplace of Hippocrates. She had once
proudly sworn his oath, "I will give not deadly medicine."
Accompanied by her sister
Madeleine, Dana follows the mystery of the letter to Kos. The arrival of two
more letters, and the strange appearances of a woman, beckon her to Italy and
England. Despairing for her sanity, Dana persists in her crusade to come to
terms with being implicated in the death of another.
Author Bio
Amanda Apthorpe is a
Melbourne-based, Australian author of fiction and non-fiction. She studied at
the University of Melbourne and holds a PhD and a Masters degree in creative
writing, is a Master of science and a teacher with over twenty-five years
experience. Amanda currently teaches in the Professional Writing and Editing
program at the Centre for Adult Education, and is active in the international
academic community of writing. She is published by Atlas Productions.
Links
Websites: http://amandaapthorpe.com
Twitter: @
AmandaApthorpe
Book Excerpt
The ceiling of the cabin sagged so low that I
could measure its distance to my face with a wide-fingered handspan. A cold
light from the bathroom cubicle ricocheted around the walls and reflected off
the panels above my nose. Where they met, someone had picked at the seam like a
child at a scab. With each pitch and toss of the ferry, diesel fumes seeped
through its pores.
There was no sound from the bunk
below. My sister, I assumed, was sleeping peacefully, but I needed the comfort
of her enthusiasm. In the space left to me I contorted my body so that my head
and torso hung over the bunk’s edge.
“Madeleine. Are you awake?”
There was a low groan and the sound
of the bunk springs creaking as she rolled over.
“What?” Her yawn was thick with
sleep.
“What are we doing here Mads?”
No reply, just a soft snore at the
back of her throat. I rolled back to stare again at the ceiling’s ragged seam.
A dog barked in a cabin somewhere further along the deck.
In the darkness of what I feared
would be our watery crypt, I doubted the wisdom of this journey.
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