Despite its title, Tim Winton’s latest novel concerns literal and figurative acts of suffocation. The adrenalin- fuelled tale is told as a flashback by the middle-aged Bruce Pike, a paramedic and divorced father who recognises a presumed suicide as a case of autoerotic asphyxiation gone wrong. Pike’s familiarity with this particular euphoria-inducing activity inspires him to remember his own hazard-hungry youth in Western Australia.

Written with spartan clarity, Breath’s spot-on insights into self-discovery (and self-annihilation) are as addictive and absorbing as the characters it portrays. But what makes the novel great is its subtle undertow: Pike’s youthful arrogance gives way to a meditation on physical risks, and how they can wreck friendships, not to mention lives.