Amy Koppelman

A young wife and mother in Manhattan continues to struggle with the painful effects of postpartum depression and her stifling feelings of disconnection in the wake of a suicide attempt. Reprint.

A Mouthful Of Air

Adrienne Miller

A Mouthful of Air

In Koppelman's new novel, Dr. Susanna Seliger is a renowned psychiatrist who specializes in treatment-resistant depression. The most difficult cases come through her door, and Susa is always ready to discuss treatment options, medication, and symptom management but draws the line at engaging with feelings. A strict adherence to protocol keeps her from falling apart. But her past is made present by one patient, Jim, whose struggles tear open Susa's hastily stitched up wounds, revealing her latent feeling that she could have helped the people closest to her, especially her adored, cool, talented graffiti-artist brother.

Hesitation wounds

Now a major motion picture starring Amanda Seyfried, adapted and directed by Amy Koppelman. Compared to seminal feminist works such as Charlotte Perkins Gilman's "The Yellow Wallpaper" and Sylvia Plath's The Bell Jar, A Mouthful of Air is a powerful, tragic statement on motherhood, family, and survival. A Mouthful of Air is a compassionate and wrenching portrait of Julie Davis, a young wife and mother torn between the love she feels for her family and the voice in her head that insists they'd be better off without her. We meet Julie several weeks after her suicide attempt, on the eve of her son's first birthday. Grateful to be alive, Julie tries her best to appreciate every moment--"this tree, that passing car, the pretzel guy up ahead on the corner. She has, for whatever reason, been given a second chance"--but her emotional demons are unrelenting, and she is slowly and quietly losing the battle. Within the narrative of A Mouthful of Air is an argument about the nature of depression--its causes, cures, and the price it exacts from its victims. With spare, elegant prose, this brutally honest portrayal of family and self illuminates the power and complexity of the human psyche. Originally published in 2003, A Mouthful of Air now includes an afterword by author Adrienne Miller.

A Mouthful of Air (Movie Tie-In Edition)

The second novel from author whose debut was compared to The Awakening and The Bell Jar.

A Novel

I Smile Back

"Powerful. Koppelman's instincts help her navigate these choppy waters with inventiveness and integrity."—Los Angeles Times "Koppelman explores with ruthless honesty a woman come undone."—Bookslut "Koppelman mostly writes from inside Laney's disillusioned mind, ricocheting between the quotidian details of wife and motherhood and big-picture musings, forming exquisite stand-alone tone poems."—Elle Now a major motion picture starring Sarah Silverman in her dramatic-acting debut, and Josh Charles, I Smile Back tells the affecting tale of Laney Brooks, a mother and wife on a self-destructive streak. She takes the drugs she wants, sleeps with the men she wants, disappears when she wants. Lurking beneath Laney's seemingly composed surface is the impulse to follow in her father's footsteps, to leave and topple her family's balance in the process. The film adaptation of I Smile Back premiered at the 2015 Sundance Film Festival in the prestigious US Dramatic competition. Silverman's affecting dramatic turn in the lead role has garnered praise in film trade reviews as "tremendous," "terrific," and "awards worthy," and will inspire an onslaught of attention upon the film's national theatrical release. Amy Koppelman is a graduate of Columbia's MFA program. Her writing has appeared in the New York Observer and Lilith. She lives in New York City with her husband and two children, and is the author of the novels A Mouthful of Air and I Smile Back. She adapted the screenplay for the film from her own novel.

Now a major motion picture starring Amanda Seyfried. Compared to seminal feminist works such as Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper” and Sylvia Plath’s The Bell Jar, A Mouthful of Air is a powerful, tragic statement on motherhood, family, and survival. A Mouthful of Air is a compassionate and wrenching portrait of Julie Davis, a young wife and mother torn between the love she feels for her family and the voice in her head that insists they’d be better off without her. We meet Julie several weeks after her suicide attempt, on the eve of her son’s first birthday. Grateful to be alive, Julie tries her best to appreciate every moment—“this tree, that passing car, the pretzel guy up ahead on the corner. She has, for whatever reason, been given a second chance”—but her emotional demons are unrelenting, and she is slowly and quietly losing the battle. Within the narrative of A Mouthful of Air is an argument about the nature of depression—its causes, cures, and the price it exacts from its victims. With spare, elegant prose, this brutally honest portrayal of family and self illuminates the power and complexity of the human psyche. Originally published in 2003, A Mouthful of Air now includes an afterword by author Adrienne Miller.

We meet Julie Davis a few weeks after her suicide attempt and on the eve of her son's first birthday. Desperate to lead a "normal" life, Julie tries to be thankful for the good things - her comfortable lifestyle, her doting husband, and her healthy baby. But her emotional demons are unrelenting, and the battle is being quietly lost.

The acclaimed author of I Smile Back, Amy Koppelman is a novelist of astonishing power, with a sly, dark voice, at once fearless and poetic. In Koppelman's new novel, Dr. Susanna Seliger is a renowned psychiatrist who specializes in treatment-resistant depression. The most difficult cases come through her door, and Susa is always ready to discuss treatment options, medication, and symptom management but draws the line at engaging with feelings. A strict adherence to protocol keeps her from falling apart. But her past is made present by one patient, Jim, whose struggles tear open Susa's hastily stitched up wounds, revealing her latent feeling that she could have helped the people closest to her, especially her adored, cool, talented graffiti-artist brother. Spectacularly original, gorgeously unsettling, HESITATION WOUNDS is a novel that will sink deep and remain--like a persistent scar or a dangerous glow-in-the-dark memory.

Amy Koppelman

About

Books

Join the club