If I Fall, If I Die
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3.9 • 17 Ratings
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- $5.99
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- $5.99
Publisher Description
The boy stepped Outside, and he did not die. Will has never been Outside, at least not since he can remember. For most of his young life he has lived happily – and safely – Inside his small house with his mother, a fiercely loving yet wildly eccentric agoraphobe who panics at the thought of opening the front door. But Will’s curiosity can’t be contained. Clad in a hockey helmet to protect himself from unknown dangers, he finally ventures Outside – and braces himself for disaster. What he finds instead will change everything.
Will embraces his newfound freedom and soon befriends Jonah, an artistic loner who introduces him to the high-flying thrills of skateboarding. But life Outside quickly grows complicated. When a local boy goes missing, Will is pulled further away from the confines of his closed-off world and thrust headfirst into the throes of early adulthood and the criminal underbelly of city life. All the while his mother must grapple with her greatest fear: will she be brave enough to save her son?
In dazzling, kinetic prose, Michael Christie has written a beautifully tender and emotionally resonant story about family and friendship, overcoming our fears, and learning when to protect the ones we love and when to let them fall.
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
Thunder Bay can be a terrifying place: there are wolves in the schoolyard, menacing strangers, accidents at the mill, and peril around every corner. At least that’s why Will’s agoraphobic mother has never let him go outside. But when the protagonist of If I Fall, If I Die leaves the bubble, this tense, exploratory coming-of-age tale takes flight. While Will’s search for a missing boy drives the action, this elegant novel is grounded in the hero's quiet friendship with Jonah—a skateboarder from the rough part of town—and in Canadian writer Michael Christie's compassionate portrayal of mental illness.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
"The Outside" has never seemed as dangerous and as magical as in the debut novel by Christie (the story collection The Beggar's Garden) about a boy who lives confined in his home with his agoraphobic mother. Until the age of 11, Will has never set foot Outside; he spends his time indoors painting "masterpieces," conducting Destructivity experiments, and dealing with the many deliverymen his mother fears. When a strange noise brings Will outdoors for the first time, he encounters a boy who soon disappears, sparking Will's curiosity about not only the boy's whereabouts but also the Outside world in general. Against his mother's wishes, he starts attending school, making friends, and picking up skateboarding. Alternating chapters between Will's increasingly daring adventures Outside and his mother's increasing reclusiveness hint at his mother's past and the source of her condition. While the mysterious family backstory at times distracts from the delightful simplicity of Will's misadventures, the boy's raw but clever commentary brims with a fierce poignancy that makes the book very difficult to put down.
