Over the course of a summer, he hangs out with Pikelet and Loonie and tests their courage by taking them surfing in often dangerous and remote locations.įor the first time in his life, Pikelet experiences exhilaration and finds something that he is exceptionally good at. He is in his 30s (“that made him a genuinely old guy”) and, although the boys don’t immediately know it, he was once an international champion surfer. His name is Sando, he has a Kombi van, a red dog, a lovely house by the ocean and an American wife with a chip on her shoulder and a stroppy attitude to match. The solitary figure on the beach (as per the quote above) turns out to be the linchpin of this story. I remember the solitary watching figure on the beach and the flash of Loonie’s smile as I flew by I was intoxicated. I leant across the wall of upstanding water and the board came with me as though it was part of my body and mind. How the wave drew me forward and I sprang to my feet, skating with the wind of momentum in my ears. The way the swell rose beneath me like a body drawing in air. The smells of paraffin wax and brine and peppy scrub.

I will always remember my first wave that morning. Looking for added excitement, they save their pennies and invest in “real surfboards” made out of “proper foam and fibreglass” which “were tokens of our arrival”. The pair aren’t exactly kindred spirits, but there’s a bond between them - mainly in the form of “deep diving and breath-holding against the clock”.

The only time he is ever sure of himself is when he is swimming in the local river or surfing in the ocean.īut when he meets “Loonie”, the town’s wild child, everything changes. Bruce Pike, or “pikelet”, is an outsider - his parents are English immigrants - who has no friends and lacks confidence. I read Breath over the course of a few cold winter days and found myself mesmerised by the gentle, occasionally heart-breaking, story that unfolds, of a boy growing up on the Western Australian coast in the 1970s. But he does it so delicately you’re not even aware that it’s happening - a bit like breathing itself - until you put the book down and mull things over. In Breath, his eighth novel, he focuses on the concept of breath - and breathing - so that it infuses almost every page. You’ve got to hand it to Tim Winton for being able to pick a theme and really work it. Fiction – paperback Picador 247 pages 2009.

Tim winton breath review