Even As We Breathe

A Novel

By: Annette Saunooke Clapsaddle

Narrated by: Kaipo Schwab

Nineteen-year-old Cowney Sequoyah yearns to escape his hometown of Cherokee, North Carolina, in the heart of the Smoky Mountains. When a summer job at Asheville's luxurious Grove Park Inn and Resort brings him one step closer to escaping the hills that both cradle and suffocate him, he sees it as an opportunity. With World War II raging in Europe, the inn is the temporary home of Axis diplomats and their families, who are being held as prisoners of war. Soon, Cowney's refuge becomes a cage when the daughter of one of the residents goes missing and he finds himself accused of abduction and murder.

Even as We Breathe invokes the elements of bone, blood, and flesh as Cowney navigates difficult social, cultural, and ethnic divides. After leaving the seclusion of the Cherokee reservation, he is able to explore a future free from the consequences of his family's choices and to construct a new worldview, for a time. However, prejudice and persecution in the white world of the resort eventually compel Cowney to free himself from larger forces that hold him back as he struggles to unearth evidence of his innocence and clear his name.

©2020 The University Press of Kentucky (P)2021 Tantor

Such a well written book.

I loved this story so much. Being able to really get lost in the characters and setting is what makes reading great, and this book made it so easy to do so. Would highly recommend!!

Beautifully written

A beautifully written story about growing up Cherokee in Cherokee, North Carolina in the post war 1940’s combined with a mystery involving the historic Grove Park Inn in Asheville.

couldn't stop listening!

I absolutely loved this book. it wrapped me in from the beginning emotionally. Annette is just phenomenal I hope to see more from her.

Must Read

Thought provoking! Humbling! I will never look at the Smokey Mountains and Asheville the same again.

Worth every second of listening time and more

The amount of tenderness in this book was consuming. I enjoyed the characters and the storyline, even though a few characters displayed a type of kindness towards Native folks that seems far fetched for that era.. it was still super worth the read!!