Indianola, Louisiana, 2004

Her father always told his youngest daughter she killed her mother. "She got the diabetes when she was pregnant with you and that’s what killed her." Brenna O’Brien’s sisters all agree that he was a mean and controlling man. Brenna might have survived her mother’s death when she was six and her father’s insensitive upbringing, but another heartbreak happened in high school. Her teenage love, Pierce McGovern, walked out of her life while she was hospitalized with meningitis, leaving for college without a word. Before he left, life’s possibilities excited her. Now thirty-three, her broken heart may have healed, but her life never recovered. She would rather remain uninvolved than risk disappointment.

Now, Brenna’s love has been given to the town theater, the Royal Majestic, built when Gone With the Wind was first released. Brenna hopes to restore the dilapidated building to the grandeur it once possessed. Each day she wears a different saint’s medal, whichever specializes in the problem she faces, hoping that saint will intervene and fix her life. She and her four sisters share a supportive love that sometimes turns interfering. On Sundays, they gather for dinner at their childhood house, now the oldest sister’s home. And once a week they get together for scrapbooking. Each scrapbook reflects the sister making it in a special way. Brenna collects old unopened letters and puts them in hers. Never opening the envelopes, she writes stories on the scrapbook pages of what message she believes the letter divulges.

Recently divorced, Pierce McGovern returns to Indianola to finalize the building site for a new multiplex theater and to help his father move into an assisted living facility. Seeing Brenna brings back the heartache of her harsh jilting. Later, after several miserable skirmishes, he tells her he divorced his wife, "because she wasn't you." He wants to get his father settled and his business finished so he can escape Indianola and its memories, even if it means the end of the Royal Majestic. Then, a wrecking crew demolishing the old post office discovers unopened letters from World War II addressed to his father -- letters that provoke curiosity and reveal a horrible subterfuge.

LEARNING TO BREATHE is one of those stories where you savor every single word. All the characters are quirky and vulnerable. Their slow unveiling of loves lost, their sins, secrets and bittersweet memories in the small town of Indianola create a story that will touch your soul as well as your heart. Moreover, LEARNING TO BREATHE takes you on a journey of reflection as the characters reveal their histories and where their choices led. The past might teach both Brenna and Pierce to discover what passion defines their lives, and the will to overcome all obstacles preventing their dreams. For these excellent characterizations and how they interweave to give a clear view of their community, and for how the story delves into the mysteries of what makes a well-lived life, LEARNING TO BREATHE earns a Perfect 10.

Robin Lee