Elizabeth Poliner is the author of Mutual Life & Casualty, a novel-in-stories, and the forthcoming collection of poems, What You Know in Your Hands. Her stories and poems have appeared in The Kenyon Review, Colorado Review, The Southern Review, Prairie Schooner, and many other journals. A recipient of seven individual artist grants from the D.C. Commission on the Arts and Humanities, she has also been awarded fiction scholarships to the Bread Loaf and Sewanee writers' conferences. She teaches creative writing at Hollins University.
"An instant classic.... Poliner handles the texture of Jewish
family life with brilliance, authenticity, and a touch of
wistfulness."
--Jewish Book Council
"Beautiful.... A nuanced, intricate family drama that explores
their tight culture at a turning point.... [It's] the kind of novel
you sink into blissfully. It casts a spell.... [Poliner's]
characters seem so real, so multi-dimensional, so sympathetic even
when they mess up that you have to shake yourself back to the
present each time you put down the book.... As Close to Us As
Breathing is a marvel of artful storytelling."--NPR.org
"If summer, for you, recalls days spent by the seashore, Poliner's
saga of three Jewish sisters and the beachfront cottage they share
with their families--until life-altering tragedy strikes--will
enthrall you."
--O, the Oprah Magazine
"Poliner depicts each character with sensitivity and
insight...Beautifully written, stringently unsentimental, and yet
tender in its empathy for the perennial human conflict between
service and self."--Kirkus (Starred Review)
"Poliner's novel is an exquisitely written investigation of grief
and atonement, and an elegy for a Jewish family bound together by
tradition and tribe."--Publishers Weekly
"Resonant, sensitively observed...Poliner has a keen eye for the
awkwardness and sudden leaping insights of adolescents on the brink
of adulthood....Poliner also deserves kudos for the warm,
particularized light in which she dresses her many characters. As
Close to Us as Breathing is a big-hearted roundelay of a novel
that, among other things, performs the invaluable service of
recovering a lost world."--New York Times Book Review
"Superb...As Close to Us as Breathing is a beautiful, complex,
character-driven novel. In the author's capable hands, every one of
Poliner's characters feels real. And, just as in reality, some of
them succumb to life's challenging circumstances. And, just as in
reality, some of them succumb to life's challenging circumstances.
And some of them ultimately soar."
--Jerusalem Post
"Vivid, complex, and beautifully written, Elizabeth Poliner's
novel, As Close to Us as Breathing, brims with characters who leave
an indelible impression on the mind and heart. This moving story of
the way one unforgettable family struggles with love and loss shows
an uncommon depth of human understanding. Elizabeth Poliner is a
wonderful talent and she should be read widely, and again and
again." --Edward P. Jones, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The
Known World
"What a lovely, lovely book." --Elizabeth Strout, Pulitzer
Prize-winning author of Olive Kitteridge
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