Winner of the Writers’ Guild Award for Best First Novel 2014.
Winner of the Specsavers Popular Fiction Book of the of the Year at the Specsavers National Book Awards 2014.
Winner of the Costa Book of the Year 2013.
Having won the Costa First Novel award, this went on to win the overall prize for the Best Book of 2013 which was when the hardback was published (last April). From that accolade you can deduce that this is an impressive work. It is challenging for it charts the narrator Matthew’s life from nine to aged nineteen, only he is schizophrenic so, although the characters are cleverly portrayed, you do need to pay attention. Slowly you realise that Matthew’s illness was precipitated by the death of his brother who was 12 when Matthew was 9. Fluctuating between present day therapy and flashes of the past the sorry tale slowly emerges. It is an enthralling read about the effects of mental illness.
WINNER OF THE SPECSAVERS POPULAR FICTION BOOK OF THE YEAR 2014
WINNER OF THE BETTY TRASK PRIZE 2014
'Dark, touching, sweet and funny and beautifully written' Jo Brand
'Deeply moving' The Times
'Bittersweet and wonderfully etched' Telegraph
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.
Brave and groundbreaking, The Shock of the Fall is an extraordinary portrait of a young man's descent into mental illness.
