If I Fall, If I Die
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- €4.49
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- €4.49
Publisher Description
A heartfelt and wondrous debut lauded by Philipp Meyer (New York Times bestselling author of The Son) as "astonishing", introducing a supremely gifted and exciting new voice in fiction.
Will has never been to the outside, at least not since he can remember.
And he has certainly never got to know anyone other than his mother, a fiercely loving yet wildly eccentric agoraphobe who drowns in panic at the thought of opening the front door. Their little world comprises only the rooms in their home, each named for various exotic locales and filled with Will's art projects. But soon the confines of his world close in on him.
Despite his mother's protests, Will ventures outside clad in a protective helmet and braces himself for danger. He eventually meets and befriends Jonah, a quiet boy who introduces him to skateboarding.
Will welcomes his new world with enthusiasm, his fears fading and his body hardening with each new bump, scrape and fall. But life quickly gets complicated. When a local boy goes missing, Will and Jonah want to uncover what happened. They embark on an extraordinary adventure that pulls Will far from the confines of his closed-off world and into the throes of early adulthood and the dangers that everyday life offers.
If I Fall, If I Die is a remarkable debut full of dazzling prose and unforgettable characters, as well as a poignant and heartfelt depiction of coming of age.
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.
