Adam, a man hunting mute birds, visits the big city. He returns to his house on the shore with an empty birdcage and a parentless boy, who soon grows to love Adam and his roommates, Ema Olivia and Kan. Everything seems mundane, except that the adult residents of the house sometimes vanish in the night and then spend the morning doing work they never talk about. The boundaries between reality and fiction are fragile and thin – the book seems to be a dark dystopia, yet each page reveals more and more resemblance to our real world. Breathe In. Breathe out. is a brilliantly written simile while also being a socially engaged book with a unique response to the refugee crisis.