Breathing Under Water
- Judith D Collins
- 1 day ago
- 7 min read
Updated: 8 hours ago
Narrators: Cassandra Campbell, Annalee Scott
ISBN: 9781400347377
Publisher: Harper Muse Audiobooks
Publication Date: 08/04/2026
Format: Audio
My Rating: 5 Stars (ARC) (ALC)
"Breathing under Water combines the intrigue of Liane Moriarty’s Big Little Lies, the pacing of Lisa Jewell’s The Family Upstairs, and the glimpse inside the elite athletic world of Alena Dillon’s The Happiest Girl in the World.” —STARRED BOOKLIST REVIEW
"A touching novel about unexpected connections and found family. Leo’s growth and change are paramount, and he feels like a real person, not a token.” —KIRKUS REVIEWS
A Zibby Owens Most Anticipated Book of Summer 2026
The current is threatening to pull them under.
Berry thought she had it figured out—juggling her vice principal role while raising her sixteen-year-old autistic son, Leo. But when a promotion opportunity collides with her family's deepest needs, she must confront whether she's been fighting the wrong battles all along.
McKenna is drowning. Between caring for her grandmother with dementia, losing her swimming scholarship, and facing homelessness, the college student's carefully constructed world is crumbling. Her only lifeline? Teaching swim lessons to children with autism—including Leo.
As these two women's paths converge in the most unexpected way, they discover that sometimes the people who need saving the most are the ones who end up saving you.
Resources and discussion questions can be found in the audiobook companion PDF download.
My Review
Jacqueline Friedland’s Breathing Under Water is an extraordinary, heart-wrenching, and beautifully triumphant piece of contemporary literary fiction. Written with surgical precision and massive empathy, this stunning novel tracks the raw, high-pressure realities of modern caregiving and structural family anxiety. It stands as a brilliant, emotionally acute masterpiece that grips your heart from the first page and refuses to let go.
The Hook
Two women on opposite sides of a structural crisis find their lives colliding over a shared lifeline—proving that sometimes the person who needs saving the most is the exact one who will end up saving you.
Elevator Pitch
When suburban empty-nester Berry struggles to protect her sixteen-year-old autistic son, Leo, while balancing a demanding vice-principal promotion track, her world feels completely precarious. Enter McKenna, an elite college swimmer drowning in sudden grief and facing homelessness while caring for her grandmother with rapidly advancing Alzheimer's. When McKenna takes on Leo as a swim student, these two separate, fractured lives move through an emotional current that organically converges into a powerhouse story of resilience and found family.
Setting
Time & Place: Present-day Summer 2026 Long Island.
Atmosphere: Emotionally charged, high-pressure, and deeply human—vibrating between high-stakes career ambitions and the vulnerable margins of family caregiving.
Vibe
Slow-burn domestic drama, deep emotional tension, and profound hope.
A deeply moving, compassionate, and realistic contemporary narrative. It handles heavy, high-stakes issues with a profound sense of hope and emotional authenticity.
Genre
Women's Domestic Life / Family Life Fiction / Literary Fiction / Domestic Family Drama
Themes
~The Weight of Caregiving: The unspoken, exhausting realities of structural maternal anxiety and early-adulthood eldercare.
~Organic Convergence: How seemingly unrelated character paths move independently before weaving together into a beautiful, full-circle found family.
Standout Characters
~Berry: A vice principal and exhausted working mother fighting an uphill battle to anchor her household, rendered with a beautiful mix of sharp professional ambition and raw, overprotective maternal vulnerability.
~McKenna: An elite college athlete whose internal world is drowning under the sudden, crushing weight of grief and isolation, displaying immense strength as she steps into the role of caregiver for her grandmother.
~Leo: The sixteen-year-old autistic son who serves as the novel's absolute physical and emotional heart, rendered with gorgeous depth.
Author Writing Standout
Jacqueline Friedland pulls off an extraordinary feat of literary carpentry by taking on a multitude of heavy societal crises—autism, dementia, grief, and housing insecurity—and doing every single one absolute justice without ever verging into melodrama. Her prose is exceptionally intentional, built around full-circle character arcs that feel earned rather than manufactured. Friedland mixes empathy with deft plotting to construct an incredible domestic framework that remains deeply rooted in reality, ensuring her multi-layered cast stays beautifully, beautifully flawed.
Takeaway
True resilience isn't about weathering the storm in absolute isolation; it is the courage to accept the unexpected connections that anchor you when the current threatens to pull you under.
Title Significance
"Breathing Under Water" is the ultimate descriptor for the survival mechanics of these two central women. It is a stunning, direct nod to the exhausting daily act of functioning beneath the crushing weight of systemic caregiving pressures while maintaining the outward illusion of keeping your head completely clear.
Metaphor
The swimming pool operates as a beautiful, transformative crucible. It acts as the singular space where language and developmental barriers dissolve, translating high-pressure aquatic discipline into an intimate bridge for human understanding and sensory healing.
Why You Should Read
This is a deeply sensitive, emotionally acute novel that balances the pacing of elite domestic fiction with a profound look inside the quiet sacrifices of real modern families.
My Thoughts
Chillingly authentic, deeply compassionate, and intensely moving.
"A stunning, exceptionally written piece of contemporary literary fiction. Friedland pulls off an incredible feat by tackling heavy, real-world crises—autism, dementia, and grief—while crafting beautifully flawed, multidimensional characters that stay with you long after the final page."
As a 12-year book blogger processing up to 30-40 ARCs /ALCs a month, finding a piece of contemporary fiction that handles multi-POV structures this flawlessly is an absolute gift. I loved her previous novel, Counting Backwards, but this production is an entirely different level of exceptional—it completely held me captive. It is a flawless, full-circle narrative where every emotional beat hits with surgical precision, leaving me with tears through the good, the bad, and the ugly. The relentless momentum of the audio narration completely consumed me, forcing me to absorb the entire experience in a single, uninterrupted sitting. It is an extraordinary auditory triumph that earns every bit of its five stars.
Verdict Rating: 5 / 5 Stars + ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
"Breathing Under Water" is an emotional tour de force that secures a definitive spot on my #TopAudiobooksof2026 list—an essential, heart-wrenching masterpiece of contemporary storytelling.
Audio 🎧 Standout
"Cassandra Campbell and Annalee Scott deliver a masterclass in dual narration. "
~The acoustic architecture of this production is an absolute masterclass in dual-narrator casting. The legendary Cassandra Campbell brings her mesmerizing, spellbinding brilliance to Berry's perspective, capturing the fragile, overprotective exhaustion of a working mother with a quiet intimacy that leaves you completely breathless.
~When Annalee Scott enters to command McKenna's chapters, she performs like an immediate emotional anchor, delivering a raw, vulnerable performance that perfectly matches the high-wire frantic panic of a young student watching her world crumble. Together, their stellar vocal transitions transform Friedland's empathetic text into a cinematic listening experience.
Recs or Read Alikes
If you loved the emotional themes, dual perspectives, and found-family dynamics of Breathing Under Water by Jacqueline Friedland, you will enjoy books that explore caregiving, neurodiversity, parallel women's struggles, and life-changing unexpected connections. The following books mirror the heart and tone of Berry, McKenna, and Leo's intersecting journeys:
~The Girl He Used to Know by Tracey Garvis Graves
~The Happiest Girl in the World by Alena Dillon
~The Mother-in-Law by Sally Hepworth
~House Rules by Jodi Picoult
~Other authors: The compassionate family fiction of Catherine Ryan Hyde, Lisa Genova, Elizabeth Berg, Liane Moriarty, Jessica Strawser, Kristy Woodson Harvey, Patti Callahan Henry, and Lisa Jewell: Perfect for readers seeking authors who masterfully balance delicate family dynamics, strong women, devastating medical realities, and the transformative power of unexpected human connection.
Special thanks to Harper Muse and NetGalley for graciously sharing an advanced reading and listening copy in exchange for my honest thoughts.
@JudithDCollins | #JDCMustReadBooks
My Rating: 5 Stars +
Pub Date: Aug 4, 2026
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Praise
'Breathing under Water combines the intrigue of Liane Moriarty's Big Little Lies, the pacing of Lisa Jewell's The Family Upstairs, and the glimpse inside the elite athletic world of Alena Dillon's The Happiest Girl in the World. Readers will find much to enjoy in this timely, deeply sensitive novel about the cost of silence and the courage it takes to speak up for yourself when no one else will.' -
- STARRED BOOKLIST REVIEW
'A touching novel about unexpected connections and found family. Leo's growth and change are paramount, and he feels like a real person, not a token.'
-- KIRKUS REVIEWS
'A thoughtful and compassionate exploration of caregiving, ambition, and the ripple effects of loving someone with profound needs. This is a layered, emotionally resonant novel that will give book clubs plenty to discuss.'
-- TRACEY GARVIS GRAVES, New York Times bestselling author of The Girl He Used to Know
'This big-hearted novel grabbed me from page one and didn't let me go. Jacqueline is a master of writing characters so real, it feels like they could walk out of the book and right into your living room--and she's done it again.'
-- COLLEEN OAKLEY, USA Today bestselling author of Jane and Dan at the End of the World
'Engrossing and deeply moving, Breathing Under Water is a graceful exploration of womanhood at every age and stage. Jacqueline Friedland expertly captures the fierce love and quiet resilience of motherhood, the intense pressures of coming of age, and the unexpected ways in which we save each other. An unforgettable story with indelible characters that will stay with readers long after the final page, this is a must-read novel of the year!'
-- Kristy Woodson Harvey, New York Times bestselling author of Summer State of Mind
'Jacqueline Friedland has done it again. With her signature mix of empathy and deft plotting, she takes us inside the lives of characters holding fast to their place on the margins until you are breathlessly rooting for them with every turn of the page.'
-- NICOLA KRAUS, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Nanny Diaries and The Best We Could Hope For
About the Author
Jacqueline Friedland is a USA Today and Amazon bestselling author of historical and contemporary women's fiction. After graduating from the University of Pennsylvania, she earned a law degree from NYU and a Master of Fine Arts from Sarah Lawrence College. Jackie regularly reviews fiction for trade publications and appears at schools and other locations as a guest lecturer. She lives just outside New York City with her husband, four children, and two dogs. Connect with her online at jacquelinefriedland.com; Facebook: @JacquelineFriedlandAuthor; Instagram: @jackiefriedland; X: @jbfriedland
