Breathe Audiobook By Joyce Carol Oates cover art

Breathe

A Novel

 Preview
LIMITED TIME OFFER

3 months free
Try for $0.00
Offer ends July 31, 2025 at 11:59PM PT.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
Premium Plus auto-renews for $14.95/mo after 3 months. Cancel anytime.

Breathe

By: Joyce Carol Oates
Narrated by: Cassandra Campbell
Try for $0.00

$0.00/mo. after 3 months. Offer ends July 31, 2025 at 11:59PM PT. Cancel anytime.

Buy for $24.29

Buy for $24.29

Confirm purchase
Pay using card ending in
Switch payment method
By confirming your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use, License, and Amazon's Privacy Notice. Taxes where applicable.
Cancel

A novel of love and loss from best-selling and prizewinning author Joyce Carol Oates

Amid a starkly beautiful but uncanny landscape in New Mexico, a married couple from Cambridge, MA, takes residency at a distinguished academic institute. When the husband is stricken with a mysterious illness, misdiagnosed at first, their lives are uprooted and husband and wife each embarks upon a nightmare journey. At 37, Michaela faces the terrifying prospect of widowhood - and the loss of Gerard, whose identity has greatly shaped her own.

In vividly depicted scenes of escalating suspense, Michaela cares desperately for Gerard in his final days as she comes to realize that her love for her husband, however fierce and selfless, is not enough to save him and that his death is beyond her comprehension. A love that refuses to be surrendered at death - is this the blessing of a unique married love, or a curse that must be exorcized?

Part intimately detailed love story, part horror story rooted in real life, Breathe is an exploration of hauntedness rooted in the domesticity of marital love, as well as our determination both to be faithful to the beloved and to survive the trauma of loss.

©2021 Joyce Carol Oates (P)2021 HarperCollins Publishers Family Life Fiction Genre Fiction Literary Fiction Psychological Marriage Inspiring
All stars
Most relevant  
This story is a disturbing look at a woman plunged into the depths of grief at the loss of her husband. Her mind was so overwhelmed by the loss that I was not sure which circumstances were real and which were imagined. I am not sure what happened at the end. Was it a dream or did she really go on the hike that lead to her death?


Not sure what was real or grief driven hysteria.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
I liked the story line but it just went on and on and on. After four hours or so I was too invested to stop listening but seriously this should’ve been a 2 to 3 hour book and I would’ve loved it.

Would’ve been a great short story.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Did not seem to know what it wanted to be— a bit of horror, a bit of drama, a modern fable, what? and no real suspense, therefore boring and repetitious. That said I will always pick up the next one from one of our greatest living fiction writers

Disappointing story from a fave writer

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
I just finished listening to the book. Everyone who is a JCO fan must read it. Grief is inescapable for all of us - this book is your guide in sorrow and loss.










Devastating and powerful

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
A lot of it didn't make sense and couldn't follow. Didn't finish the book.

Couldn't stay interested. Story didn't help me.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
It was hard to tell which direction it was going. No hope in it

Dark and Depressing

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.