‘Swallow the Air’ is a novel. It’s the kind of novel that’ll have you underlining passage. The sentence construction is unique, thoughtful and beautiful. Here’s a snippet; ‘I remember the day I found out my mother was head sick. She wore worry on her wrists as she tied the remaining piece of elastic to the base of the old ice-cream container… She had a face that only smiled in photographs. She finished fixing my brother, Billy, also in an ice-cream tub helmet and sent us fishing. Puncturing the fear that magpies would swoop down and peck out the tops of our heads.’

If that style of writing draws you in, you’re in for a treat with ‘Swallow the Air’.

Since writing this review, Tara published another book I’d also highly recommend; ‘The Yield’. It explores the meaning of words and includes the most beautiful dictionary/memoir as one of the narrative voices in the story. It’s an absolute gift to read those sections.