By: Frances De Pontes Peebles BUY BOOK HERE
I had a serious WAIT WHATTT moment as I finished this book! (If you read it, message me and we can discuss it!) It's a first person point of view told by an orphaned slave on a Brazilian sugar cane plantation. She is befriended by the "Little Miss" of the plantation--the spoiled, spunky, passionate daughter. They need each other to survive and find success, all while the tune of samba music plays. As their dreams come true, with it also comes the demise of their relationships. I haven't read very many books set in Brazil and I really enjoyed the culture and history it brought to the story. Sincerely loved this book!
“We all take for granted things that come too easily. That's why I can't let you go--you're always a challenge to me. Here's my vow to you, here's all I believe: For you, I'll stay invisible. I"ll be the air you breathe.”
Synopsis
Some friendships, like romance, have the feeling of fate.
Skinny, nine-year-old orphaned Dores is working in the kitchen of a sugar plantation in 1930s Brazil when in walks a girl who changes everything. Graça, the spoiled daughter of a wealthy sugar baron, is clever, well fed, pretty, and thrillingly ill behaved. Born to wildly different worlds, Dores and Graça quickly bond over shared mischief, and then, on a deeper level, over music.
One has a voice like a songbird; the other feels melodies in her soul and composes lyrics to match. Music will become their shared passion, the source of their partnership and their rivalry, and for each, the only way out of the life to which each was born. But only one of the two is destined to be a star. Their intimate, volatile bond will determine each of their fortunes--and haunt their memories.
Traveling from Brazil's inland sugar plantations to the rowdy streets of Rio de Janeiro's famous Lapa neighborhood, from Los Angeles during the Golden Age of Hollywood back to the irresistible drumbeat of home, The Air You Breathe unfurls a moving portrait of a lifelong friendship--its unparalleled rewards and lasting losses--and considers what we owe to the relationships that shape our lives.
“Exile and fame have similar side effects: if you experience either one, your world is made narrow, and the only people can bear – the only ones who truly understand you – are the ones who are in the same boat.”
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