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    Invisible as Air: A Novel
    Invisible as Air: A Novel
    Invisible as Air: A Novel
    Audiobook10 hours

    Invisible as Air: A Novel

    Written by Zoe Fishman

    Narrated by Susan Bennett, Chris Andrew Ciulla and Maxwell Glick

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    About this audiobook

    A provocative and timely new novel by the author of Inheriting Edith, one that will haunt you long after the story is heard…

    Sylvie Snow knows the pressures of expectations: a woman is supposed to work hard, but never be tired; age gracefully, but always be beautiful; fix the family problems, but always be carefree. Sylvie does the grocery shopping, the laundry, the scheduling, the schlepping and the PTA-ing, while planning her son’s Bar Mitzvah and cheerfully tending her husband, Paul, who’s been lying on the sofa with a broken ankle. She’s also secretly addicted to the Oxycontin intended for her husband.

    For three years, Sylvie has repressed her grief about the heartbreaking stillbirth of her newborn daughter, Delilah. On the morning of the anniversary of her death, when she just can’t face doing one…more…thing: she takes one—just one—of her husband’s discarded pain pills. And suddenly she feels patient, kinder, and miraculously relaxed. She tells herself that the pills are temporary, just a gift, and that when the supply runs out she’ll go back to her regularly scheduled programming.

    But days turn into weeks, and Sylvie slips slowly into a nightmare. At first, Paul and Teddy are completely unaware, but this changes quickly as her desperate choices reveal her desperate state. As the Bar Mitzvah nears, all three of them must face the void within themselves, both alone and together.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperAudio
    Release dateSep 24, 2019
    ISBN9780062960825
    Author

    Zoe Fishman

    Zoe Fishman is the 2020 Georgia Author of the Year. She is the bestselling author of five previous novels and several awards including Booklist’s “Top 10 Books of the Year” and an IndieNext Pick.  She’s been featured on “City Lights” with Lois Reitzes, and in Publisher’s Weekly and The Atlanta Jewish Times among others. Her essays have been published in The New York Times, The Atlanta Journal Constitution and Modern Loss.   Zoe was the Director of The Decatur Writers Studio and a visiting writer at SCAD Atlanta. She lives in Decatur with her two sons.

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    Reviews for Invisible as Air

    4/5

    52 ratings16 reviews

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    • 4/5
      The Snow family has issues, like any family, many stemming from the stillbirth of their baby girl, three years ago. Sylvie represses all her feelings, hardening herself to her husband Paul, and their teenage son, Teddy. Paul deals with his feelings of inadequacy by throwing himself into triathlon training, and "retail therapy", buying so much sports equipment online, it puts a strain on the family's finances, specially since he broke his ankle, and can't work. Teddy, their son, is struggling with the usual things a pubescent boy deals with, on top of knowing things about his parents, that he doesn't want to know -- like, his mom is addicted to Oxycodone (which she started taking when she found Paul's subscription after the broken ankle). None of them are actually dealing with the loss of the baby, they just gloss over it all, until things come to a head, and they're forced, individually, and as a family, to face up to the loss, grieve, and try to move on. I enjoyed the author's writing style, told from all three main characters' points of view, with lots of sly humor thrown it, and now want to read more of her earlier works. I do recommend this book.
    • 4/5
      Invisible as Air by Zoe Fishman is a poignant portrait of a family struggling with grief over their stillborn baby.

      Forty-six year old Sylvie Snow is not an easy woman to like. She makes no effort to hide her irritation and resentment of her husband, Paul.  His broken ankle is just her latest frustration with his Triathlon training.  On the third anniversary on the loss of their stillborn daughter, Delilah, Sylvie's slippery slope of opioid dependency begins.  Her curiosity over Paul's description of how oxycontin makes him feel results with her taking the first pill.  But the drug's effects on her grief and negative emotions are why she continues taking them. Before long, Sylvie's need for more pills leads to poor decisions that could have devastating effects on her life and marriage.

      In the three years since their heartrending loss, Sylvie's and Mark's marriage has been on a downward spiral. Sylvie has closed herself off emotionally and seethes with anger over Mark's ability to move on after losing Delilah.  She is distant, bitter and clings tightly to the grief she believes only she is entitled to feel. Mark is dealing with his feelings of loss and emptiness by throwing himself into Triathlon training and online shopping.  Their twelve year old son Teddy also deeply feels the loss of his sister but he is left to mourn on his own.

      With chapters alternating between Sylvie's, Mark's and Teddy's points of view, Invisible as Air is an engrossing novel with a topical storyline. Mark and Sylvie are not particularly likable characters but it is easy to feel empathy for their heartbreaking loss. Teddy is surprisingly mature for his age but he is shouldering burdens that no child should ever bear. Sylvie's descent into addiction is an all too real problem in today's world.  Zoe Fishman brings the novel to a realistic conclusion that will leave readers pondering the Snow family's future.  An emotionally compelling novel that I truly enjoyed and highly recommend.
    • 5/5
      The story of the Snow family could be your neighbors’ story or the story of your friends, or even that of your own family. Sylvie Snow has not been same since the stillbirth of her daughter Delilah three years previously. Now she is preparing for her son Teddy’s upcoming bar mitzvah. On top of this her husband Paul has broken his ankle and his whining and neediness is grating on her nerves. Finally one day Sylvie just can’t take it anymore and takes one of Paul’s Hydrocodone pills. Under the influence of the pills she is calmer and kinder to her family. She likes how they make her feel so begins taking them just to get her through the bar mitzvah. She knows Paul will never notice as he refused to take any of the pills and had told her to throw them out. Thus starts her desperate cycle of addiction. Paul has his own issues dealing with the emptiness he has felt since the loss of his daughter. Teddy discovers the secrets his parents are hiding and is conflicted as to what to do.Using alternating perspectives of Sylvie, Paul, and Teddy the reader is drawn into the story and becomes invested in the lives of the Snow family. I liked the character of Sylvie. I could relate to the stress she was dealing with on top of the grieving she never fully allowed herself to embrace. Having worked with some gang member kids previously I could understand Teddy’s position in the family – feeling he had to be the parent to his parents. It was a really heavy load for a young teen to bear.A hauntingly realistic story relevant to today’s social environment. I highly recommend it.Thank you to LibraryThing and William Morrow Books for the advance reading copy. All views expressed are my honest opinion.
    • 4/5
      46 year old Sylvie Snow is a person that we all know. She could be your neighbor, your best friend or a family member. She is a hardworking wife and mother with a career and a myriad of stresses on her every day. As the novel begins, it's the three year anniversary of her daughter's stillbirth - something that she feels her husband doesn't care about even though it's a very painful day for her. On top of that, her husband is recuperating from a broken ankle and isn't able to help at all with cleaning or shopping plus she has to take care of him, along with everyone and everything else. When she is getting ready to start her day, she finds the bottle of pain pills that were prescribed for her husband that he had never taken and after mentally reviewing her life, she decides that she'll take one pill - just one and then she'll quit - to make this day more bearable. She tells herself that one pill won't matter and that she needs help getting through this day. But one pill quickly becomes two and then even more until she realizes that she needs the pills to survive. As she is heading for the bottom of her family life, her job and basically her sanity, she realizes that she has become addicted and the pills have become the only important thing in her life.This family could be any family in upper class America. Addicts aren't just young people but the drug epidemic is rampant at all ages and all classes - it is happening everywhere. I found this book interesting because it looked at addiction in a 40 something female who appeared to have the good life before addiction changed everything for her and her family.This was an interesting well written book about a family in trouble who don't share their thoughts and feelings with each other. Will they be able to learn to trust each other and become a family again?Thanks to the publisher for a copy of this book to read and review. All opinions are my own.
    • 4/5
      This story really grew on me. I think what hit close to home was the fact Sylvie could easily be your next door neighbor, or co-worker, or even your family member. She starts taking her husband's pain pills to cope with her grief over the death of her baby a few years ago and becomes addicted. She has a nice job, lives in a beautiful home, and even is a PTA member, but she is an addict. And I appreciate that the author chose to feature her as a character because her story is one that is playing out in countless homes across America. The book alternates between the perspectives of Sylvie, her husband Paul, and her teenage son, Teddy. For much of the story I felt the most invested in what was going on with Sylvie rather than her family members. However, as the story unfolded I came to appreciate the unique perspectives the other two brought to the table. Surprisingly I have not come across many fiction books featuring a middle aged, upper middle class, suburban mother type character like Sylvie with an opioid addiction. I'm not sure why that's the case because by now we know that this epidemic has hit all social classes, races, big cities, rural communities, you name it. A story worth reading in my opinion. It's not a perfect book, but it's pretty darn realistic.
    • 5/5
      I received this book as an early reviewer copy through Library Thing. I thoroughly enjoyed this book from beginning to end. The plot revolves around the way that a husband, wife, and their son deal with a stillborn daughter, each in their own way. The mother turns to drugs to forget her unhappiness and guilt regarding the baby, while the father turns to excessive spending to drown his sorrow. But until the mother begins taking the opioids, she and the rest of the family are unable to talk about the baby. After beginning taking the drugs and becomes an addict, her personality blossoms and she becomes an extrovert, which includes honoring her daughter and discussing the birth with the family. As expected, the drugs cause her to spiral down to a life of addiction and promiscuity. The mother's addiction opens doors to keep the family together, but brings her addiction out in the open leading to her recovery. Characters are developed extremely well.
    • 3/5
      Invisible as Air by Zoe FishmanI won a free uncorrected proof of this novel from Library Thing in exchange for an honest review, I enjoyed reading this tale about a wife, Sylvie, now in her mid-40s, who for years had dedicated her life to pleasing her handsome husband Paul - working at being a perfect wife and a perfect mother for their quirky 12-year-old son, Teddy. Sylvie kept herself beautiful, moisturized daily, bought expensive clothes, perfumes, luggage; she had expensive manicures and pedicures at the best salon, drove a beautiful expensive car, and kept their lives meticulously organized in a beautiful home designed and built by her contractor husband and decorated by herself. But she is falling apart. As the novel opens, Sylvie is exhausted by the effort; she hates and resents her life- the grocery shopping, the laundry, the schlepping, the car pools, the PTA. The honeymoon is over; sex, once spectacular, is routine or non-existent. And she has a job which she hates but brings in much needed money to support their expensive lifestyle. What has changed is that three years ago, tragedy had struck. A much anticipated second child- a miracle girl who they’d named Delilah, had been born dead- a month premature and stillborn. The three of them grieved, but after three months of mourning, father and son tried to move on with their lives. Sylvie, holding fast onto her grief resented them for it , but would not discuss it,. After the baby’s death and Sylvie’s estrangement, Paul, had become a health and exercise nut. As the novel begins, he had just fallen during his daily team bike ride and broken his ankle. Sylvie resented his neediness, which made even more work for her- helping him shower, dress, etc. before she left for work. The son Teddy was also a problem. He was a nerdy kid, not popular at school, a bookworm who spent hours in front of the TV watching and re-watching his collection of classic movies. Sylvie had insisted he become bar mitzvah (she’d raised him Jewish in a mixed marriage- Paul’s family was southern Baptist; Paul was agnostic) So another chore to add to Sylvie’s overfilled plate- planning a bar mitzvah for a disinterested boy..How did Sylvie cope? On the 3-year anniversary of Delilah’s death, when she felt she couldn’t face even one more day, she tried just one of her husband’s unused prescription pain pills. And another. And another. The description of opioid addiction is believable and powerful.I would rate this novel 3 out of 5 stars. I enjoyed Ms Fishman’s lively writing- many sentences made me laugh out loud. But I didn’t believe in or like her characters. The son Teddy’s relationship with Phoebe, a taller cooler non-conformist girlfriend- done better by Nick Hornby in “About A Boy.” Teddy’s philosophic conversations re becoming a man and pubic hairs with Morty, his elderly male best friend in an assisted living facility- not believable and boring. The husband Paul cried too much and insisted that even though he had carried on a brief email flirtation with a younger woman, he would never ever be unfaithful to his wife no matter what -I don’t buy it. And the main character, Sylvie, was so self-involved that I didn’t much like her, wasn’t rooting for her the way I did for Nora Ephron’s aggrieved yuppie wife Rachel in “Heartburn.”
    • 3/5
      In Invisible As Air, we follow the woeful tales of the Snow family: Sylvie, who becomes an opioid addict; her husband, Paul, who has a shopping addiction; and their son, Teddy, who is trying to navigate the seas of puberty, while knowing secrets about his parents.To be honest, I didn't like the adult characters in this book, though I sympathized with their issues. They were unlikeable to me - maybe because I didn't know more about their backgrounds. It would have been interesting to read this story only from Teddy's perspective. I did appreciate Zoe Fishman's look into opioid addiction - an infliction that's affecting more and more Americans - and the perils of families who are trying hard to "keep up with the Joneses" (much to their own detriment). She showed how quickly one could become addicted - and why someone would "had everything" on the outside would turn to drugs to fix her life.If you like modern stories about family relationships, you may want to check out Invisible As Air.
    • 3/5
      To start with, contemporary domestic drama usually don’t work for me. They tend to just stress me out too much to enjoy. This book about a middle class family’s struggle with grief and addiction was a good story, just not for me. I won this through the LibraryThing Early Reviewers program in exchange for an honest review.
    • 2/5
      Zoe Fishman's novel, Invisible as Air, covers many worthy topics: grief, addiction, overspending, coming of age. The trouble I felt is that it didn't cover any of them particularly well. For me, Teddy's coming of age story hit the truest note and while Sylvie claims to feel as "invisible as air," it's Teddy who ultimately suffers this fate. Everything from the first page to the last seemed rushed. There was no building up to the issues facing the Snow family. And without the buildup, I was unable to feel the empathy for the characters I ordinarily would have, had she (the author) taken more time to develop the story. Yes, everyone handles tragedy and its accompanying grief differently, and certainly is the case with Sylvie, Paul, and Teddy, but too much was tackled and not enough adequately resolved for me to find this a satisfying book.
    • 4/5
      I found this book to be intriguing and read the entire thing in one sitting. The premise is really about how one family deals with grief and pain and highlights how everyone deals with it differently. Addiction comes out in different ways—from pills to spending to over scheduling to keep the mind busy. While I didn’t like the actions of the characters in this book, I found them to be very human. The author painted a believable story that keeps you hooked from the beginning. I will definitely be reading more by this author.
    • 5/5
      I won an ARC through a LibraryThing giveaway.I could not put this one down once I got into the first chapter. I also really like books set in Georgia, especially Atlanta. I hadn't read any of Zoe Fishman's books before, but the premise was quite intriguing. After dealing with a horrific family trauma, Sylvie becomes addicted to her husband Paul's pain pills quite quickly. I found her character unlikeable sometimes and very relateable other times. Fishman has a great way of developing her characters. Teddy was my favorite, with Morty a close runner up. I also liked how Fishman explored all of the changes Teddy was going through because of his age, while still being respectful of the character. He was treated like the young sage he was. If you like dysfunctional family dramas you are sure to enjoy this one.
    • 4/5
      It's always exciting to find a new author and really enjoy her book. This story is a little slow getting going, but eventually finds it's way. The family of Sylvie, Paul and Teddy has suffered a devastating loss in which they have never really recovered. Paul has an injury with prescribed pain pills that he refuses to take, and on the anniversary of their family tragedy, Sylvia takes one to get through the day. Thus becomes the cycle of addiction. I liked the way the opoid crisis is examined here, since it is such a big issue these days. This story shows how an ordinary family can have it all on the outside but inside all are suffering and unable to discuss their feelings with each other. I am looking forward to reading her previous works, and would highly recommend this one.
    • 5/5
      The story of Sylvia and Paul and their young son, Teddy, on the brink of manhood. On the third anniversary of their stillborn daughter, life falls apart. Sylvia and Paul seek solace in unhealthy ways; their son copes as best he knows can. The characters and their feelings are brought to life by the author’s description of conversation and her own use of her experience with grief. I didn’t know where she was taking us but it was good. The end was healing.
    • 5/5
      For the past 3 years, Sylvie has been running on auto-pilot, numbed by the grief of her stillborn daughter Delilah. On the third anniversary of her death, Sylvie takes one of her her husband's pain pills... just to get herself through the day. When she feels happiness for the first time in years, she doesn't want to let that feeling go. So she takes another. And another. Until one day she is stealing pills from friends and knows she is heading down a slope that she has no idea how to come back from.This timely book was very good. It is told in alternating chapters between Sylvie, her husband Paul and their son Teddy, so you get a 365 degree view of things. The characters seem so real you feel as if you might know them. The storyline kept me engaged from start to finish. I highly recommend it!
    • 3/5
      I am not a chick-lit fan, and this was a chick-lit book. I feel certain that Invisible as Air will be well received by the reading public at large, but it was just not my cup of tea. I found the main characters to be spoiled, snooty, and self-absorbed, and had a hard time caring what happened to them. I wanted more atmosphere, perhaps a more gritty look at opioid addiction. I do think the themes of grief after losing an unborn baby and opioid addiction will resonate with many readers.