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Ratings: ★★★★☆(4.5/5)
Genre: Literary Fiction / Psychological Fiction / Contemporary Fiction

Book Review:
A Heartbreaking and Unforgettable Debut
Nathan Filer's ''The Shock of the Fall'' is one of those rare novels that stays with you long after you've turned the final page. It is a book that is at once heartbreaking and hopeful, dark and funny, and it announces the arrival of a major new talent.

The novel is narrated by nineteen-year-old Matthew, who is writing his story on a typewriter in his room at a care facility. His story is simple and devastating: when he was a child, his beloved older brother Simon died. And his family was never the same after that. But Matthew's story is not simple at all. He is haunted by Simon's death, struggling with schizophrenia, and trying to piece together the fragments of his past. His narrative jumps back and forth in time, blending memory, fantasy, and raw emotion.

Filer, a mental health nurse, writes about mental illness with an authenticity that is both unsettling and deeply compassionate. He never sensationalizes Matthew's condition; instead, he shows us the world through his eyes, making us feel his confusion, his fear, and his desperate need to make sense of his life. The result is a powerful and immersive reading experience.

The book has been praised by everyone from SJ Watson (''Heartrending'') to Jo Brand (''Dark, touching, sweet and funny and beautifully written''). It won the Costa Book of the Year Award, beating out stiff competition, and it's easy to see why. ''The Shock of the Fall'' is a deeply moving, inventive, and ultimately uplifting novel about loss, love, and the resilience of the human spirit. It is a book that everyone should read.