Tuesday, 25 February 2014

The Shock of the Fall by Nathan Filer

Authors stand or fall on their ability to create believable voices and as a reader that sense of being completely immersed in a character’s world is one of the unique joys of fiction. In “The Shock of the Fall” Nathan Filer has created a truly memorable voice for Matthew, his troubled young protagonist who sets out to relate the story of the death of Simon (his down’s syndrome brother) and to chart the ensuing legacy of his own mental health issues.

The book is essentially Matthew’s story, told in a series of flawed flashbacks and incomplete fragments of memory. The novel is part-confessional, part document, part epistle, complete with occasional line drawings and official letters. The sense of emotional connection to the main character is palpable, evoked entirely through the strength and depth of Filer’s writing. To my mind it was a worthy outright winner of the Costa Book of the Year (fully accepting the inherent limitations of that multiple-genre competition which one critic described as comparing custard to curry).

The comparison back to Mark Haddon’s “Curious Incident” is an obvious association, but they are very different in their overall approach and intent. I was struck by the uneasy feeling of suspense that Filer develops throughout the story as we slowly tease out the facts surrounding Simon’s death. His clever use of multiple viewpoints within a first-person narrative provides a resonant echo back to Matthew’s schizophrenic personality.

From the kernel of a fairly simple story Filer has managed to create a layered narrative of real depth and complexity.

I’m intrigued to see what he decides to write next.

After all, it’s a beginning.

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