The Shock of the Fall by Nathan Filer.

           The Shock of the Fall. Nathan Filer.

" I looked in the rain clouds, fallen leaves, sideways glances. I searched for him in the places I had come to expect him. In running tap water. In spilled salt. I listened in the spaces between words."

The book won the Costa Book Awards in 2014 and was the first debut win since 2006. The main character is Matthew Homes a 19 year old boy suffering from schizophrenia. He has been sectioned and is receiving psychiatric treatment. Matthew is a convincing character suffering a cruel disease, trapped in the ever changing world of mental illness. Comparisons have been made with "The Curious Incident." Mark Haddon.

Both boys suffer pain and confusion which the authors convey powerfully. Ten years previously, Matthew and his older brother, Simon who was a Down Syndrome child, went on holiday with their parents to a caravan park in Dorset. Children were forbidden from going down to the beach themselves because the path was steep and uneven so it was dangerous. Matthew often did things he wasn't allowed to do and when he headed towards the beach, Simon followed. Early on in the story, Matthew has a fall followed by an aftershock. "By the time Simon caught up with me, at the twist in the path where exposed roots ensnare unsuspecting ankles-I was wailing like a baby." Amongst many things, Simon suffered from hypotonia, a weakness in his muscles. He was so worried by the fall that he picked his brother up and carried him all the way back to the caravan.

It was Matthew who was shouted at for putting his brother in such a horrible position. Matthew was resentful: "It was always me who was responsible for everything, I often resented him." The big shock for the reader is the start of the next chapter when we are told that Simon is dead. Cruel and sudden. "It was the whole universe turning its back and walking away, incapable of caring." A second fall that proves to be fatal.

His parents are greatly affected by the sudden death, his mother has to take regular medication to deal with her grief, her little yellow pills. Matthew carries the guilt of causing his brother's death and his life is turned upside down, spiralling out of control. There are rumours that he actually killed Simon. He is heavily medicated, removed from school and has to attend a day centre three days a week. The medical staff present him with a "plan" which maps out his life, when he has therapy, which tablets he should take. His life is repetitive, monotonous with such an imposed regime and what allows Matthew to retain some sanity in his madness is his writing: Where the moon isn't. It's his therapy, his life-saver. The moon is symbolic of Simon: "He had a big round face, which was forever smiling and made me think of the moon." Matthew's delusions amount to seeing and hearing Simon wherever he goes and for this, he is sectioned under the Mental Health Act at the mercy of the NHS.

Filer seems vague about the cause of his schizophrenia. Possibly Simon's death and the guilt surrounding it is one factor although we learn that Nanny Noo's brother Ernest was put in a mental asylum after a tragic incident that involved Matthew's grandmother. "Her brother has a disease, an illness with the shape and sound of a snake. It slithers through the branches of our family tree. It must have broken her heart, to know I was next." Or was it a faulty gene perhaps? Matthew is portrayed in a sensitive way and the reader can expect such perceptive insight into the mind of a young man struggling with mental problems-auditory hallucinations. It is far from depressing and you will find him an interesting character who deserves your sympathy.

Publisher: The Borough Press. ISBN: 978-00-7491452.

REVIEW it by Carol Naylor.

Copyright 2014. Permission must be obtained from the author before any of this article review is reproduced.