In Alison Gadsby’s debut collection, Breathing is How Some People Stay Alive, the trajectory of plot and narration in each polished piece unsettles but does so in a way that leaves no doubt as to her skill and messaging. The extremes presented in the stories demonstrate unease in a world that has lost its way. In this, Gadsby has become a diviner of sorts, and her stories a clarion call.
In the opening story, we learn that Mirabel wants to learn how to swim. She lives with Roger, a humanoid purchased for her by her father. Roger has been programmed to act as a surrogate husband and is resentful of the time she spends at the pool, eventually becoming overly controlling and abusive. With the assistance of her swimming instructor, Mirabel is ultimately able to take back control of her life. Similar to Atwood’s Edible Woman for the current moment, Gadsby channels her character’s agency through fantastical circumstances that resonate with the fears of now yet remain uncompromisingly human. To be in water, as some sort of disturbed-yet-comforting amniotic fluid of the zeitgeist, is a recurring image in the collection. Swimmers and swimming appear in many of the stories. In the title story, “Swimming”, Angela tells us that:
As a baby, water was the only thing that stopped my crying. The afternoons at the pool were necessary if Blessed was going to get any work done. She often said we’d both be dead if it weren’t for the water.
As Angela processes her emotions while coming to terms with her mother’s illness, she observes:
I’d rather be in the water than anywhere else. I dive deep to watch the swimmers above me. Back and forth, breathing every other stroke, their kicking an afterthought in a world where sluggish incompetence is enough to stay afloat.
And as she reconciles the impending death of her mother, she imagines the following:
She holds her arms out to me, and I swim into her, pressing her head against my chest … I cling to her; warn her we’re going to dive deep now.
Clare and Cam are two of the recurring figures in the collection. In one story, we are introduced to two physically abused children who are being trained as competitive swimmers. The young boy regularly shows up at the pool with welts across his back and legs from recent beatings – but, despite his injuries, he swims with all his might. In the same pointed piece, a divorced couple engage in a silent war to better one another as they champion their son who also swims competitively. And in “Once There Was a World”, we learn that a pedophile has placed a murdered child in water:
The killer hadn’t included her name on his original list because he wanted her to stay where she was, forever folded into the blanket he’d made for her, his little sleeping beauty at the bottom of the canal.
Disturbing characters pepper the collection with misogynistic and patriarchal attitudes. Among them, we meet a priest who thinks that his maleness means that he is superior, and a trash collector who kidnaps and beats a woman he has been silently observing. Several stories are linked and in each instance the reader is provided with further insights into their histories and psyches. Mental illness is fearlessly interrogated as Gadsby slices into the inner thoughts of her characters with both penetrating scrutiny and compassion.
Ultimately, the strength of Gadsby’s work comes in her ability to push fear to its extreme, so that the clarity of her bold prose can carry the reader through to unknown territory. Stimulating, engaging and powerful, this is not a collection to be missed. Highly recommended.
Read an essay from Alison Gadsby on our Patreon here!
Alison Gadsby writes in Tkaronto/Toronto where she lives in a multigenerational home that includes several dogs. Her writing has appeared in various literary journals, including Blank Spaces, The Temz Review, The Ex-Puritan, Blue Lake Review and more. She is the founder/host of Junction Reads, a prose reading series.
Publisher: Guernica Editions (March 3, 2026)
Paperback 8″ x 5″ | 214 pages
ISBN: 9781778490156
Lucy E.M. Black (she/her/hers) is the author of The Marzipan Fruit Basket, Eleanor Courtown, Stella’s Carpet, The Brickworks and Class Lessons: Stories of Vulnerable Youth. A Quilting of Scars will be released October 2025. Her award-winning short stories have been published in Britain, Ireland, USA and Canada. She is a dynamic workshop presenter, experienced interviewer and freelance writer. She lives with her partner in the small lakeside town of Port Perry, Ontario, the traditional territory of the Mississaugas of Scugog Island, First Nations.
- Lucy E. M. Blackhttps://miramichireader.ca/author/lucy-e-m-black/
- Lucy E. M. Blackhttps://miramichireader.ca/author/lucy-e-m-black/
- Lucy E. M. Blackhttps://miramichireader.ca/author/lucy-e-m-black/
- Lucy E. M. Blackhttps://miramichireader.ca/author/lucy-e-m-black/
- Lucy E. M. Blackhttps://miramichireader.ca/author/lucy-e-m-black/
- Lucy E. M. Blackhttps://miramichireader.ca/author/lucy-e-m-black/
The title really resonates. It’s interesting how something as simple as breathing can carry so much weight in our lives.