The Shock of the Fall
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4.3 • 505 Ratings
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- £5.99
Publisher Description
WINNER OF THE COSTA BOOK OF THE YEAR 2013
WINNER OF THE SPECSAVERS POPULAR FICTION BOOK OF THE YEAR 2014
WINNER OF THE BETTY TRASK PRIZE 2014
‘I’ll tell you what happened because it will be a good way to introduce my brother. His name’s Simon. I think you’re going to like him. I really do. But in a couple of pages he’ll be dead. And he was never the same after that.’
There are books you can’t stop reading, which keep you up all night.
There are books which let us into the hidden parts of life and make them vividly real.
There are books which, because of the sheer skill with which every word is chosen, linger in your mind for days.
The Shock of the Fall is all of these books.
The Shock of the Fall is an extraordinary portrait of a young man’s descent into mental illness. It is a brave and groundbreaking novel from one of the most exciting new voices in fiction.
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‘A stunning novel. Ambitious and exquisitely realised, it's by turns shocking, harrowing and heartrending. The writing is so accomplished it's hard to believe it's a debut – it's clearly the work of a major new talent' S J WATSON
‘Nathan Filer is following in the footsteps of Mark Haddon’s genre-setting The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night-Time. Both funny and painful… you’re going to love it’ DAILY MAIL
‘Bittersweet and wonderfully etched…perceptive and moving’ TELEGRAPH
‘A deeply moving (but also funny) first novel’ Kate Saunders, THE TIMES
‘A compelling story of grief, madness and loss. Filer has an ear for the dark comedy of life, and Matthew is a charismatic lead character who draws you in even as his world falls apart’
OBSERVER MAGAZINE
‘A tragic and comic account of living with schizophrenia. A must for fans of Matthew Quick’s The Silver Linings Playbook’
GQ
About the author
Nathan Filer is a registered mental health nurse. He is also a performance poet, contributing regularly to literary events across the UK. His work has been broadcast on television and radio. The Shock of the Fall is his first novel.
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
This beautifully woven and bittersweet tale of grief, madness and family is totally worth the hype. Simon was killed in a mysterious childhood incident that plagues his brother, Matthew, and triggers psychotic episodes. Registered mental health nurse Nathan Filer won the 2013 Costa Prize thanks to his sensitive and heartrending first-person narrator, Matthew, who’s struggling to get to the bottom of his sibling’s downfall. We were awestruck by Filer's creative storytelling. He uses doodled illustrations, typed-out pages and even handwritten notes from concerned social workers to create a story that rings as true as it is powerful.
Customer Reviews
Uncomfortable but real
The portrayal of Matt and the struggles he faced with his mental health left me squirming and wanting to ease some of the pain. I liked how the novel explored the inward looking aspects of mental ill health and how isolating this can be. It felt like the theme of grief ran perfectly alongside this too. Is there anything more isolating than pain that comes from loss?
The book was without a happy ending per se, which felt very real. However I liked that there was some hope. After each night the sun rises again. This was the pattern that I picked up.
Not for me
Couldn’t get into it. Hard to follow not for me. Read first few pages and deleted.
Love it
This is a good book. I couldn’t put it down. Read it in a day.