The Shock of the Fall
‘I’ll tell you what happened because it will be a good way to introduce you to 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.’
‘A deeply moving (but also funny) first novel’
Winner Of
The Costa Book Of The Year
The National Book Award For Popular Fiction
The Betty Trask Prize
The Writers’ Guild Award for Best First Novel
Short Film
‘Utterly convincing… Filer has created a character of real value’
‘Astonishingly sure-footed’
‘A convincing portrayal of an articulate boy in the grip of a powerful illness, and an absorbing account of a grief undischarged’
‘A gripping, exhilarating read… dazzlingly rendered’
‘Bittersweet and wonderfully etched’
‘A terrific debut: engaging, funny and inventive’
‘Dark, touching, sweet and funny and beautifully written’
‘Ambitious and exquisitely realised, it’s by turns shocking, harrowing and heartrending’
‘A hard-hitting and thoughtful account of contemporary mental-health practices'