The Fall

Psychologically deep, well-plotted, heart-wrenching, almost Dostoyevskian grandeur. Haven't been as moved and disturbed by a novel since R Yates *Revolutionary Road.*

I read "The Gospel of Judas" last year. So I chose this book for our book club's reading selection. I can't say everyone enjoyed it as much as I did. Most people were distracted by the mountain climbing scenes. Everyone though it was a great story but I am not sure they got as much out of it as I did. As an english major I am a little more tuned in to seeing under the imagery and the words that Mawer chooses. I loved the play with light and dark. And the thought provoking situations. It made for great conversation in the group. And I got to read an author who isn't crusty all over with boring language. Mawer doesn't beat you over the head with the metaphors, he simply puts them out there and you either enjoy them or you don't. It is a great read for readers of all levels. Something for everyone!

This is a powerhouse of a novel that will have you reading compulsively until you've turned the last page, and will leave you deep in thought long after that. "The Fall" has achieved a place on my Top 10 list of favorite works of fiction.Rob Dewer hears on the car radio that his old friend and mountain climbing partner, Jamie Matthewson, has fallen to his death while making an almost suicidal solo climb. Although the two men have not been in touch for years, the news hits Dewer hard, stirring up a series of memories and strong, unresolved feelings from long ago. He immediately turns his car towards Wales and begins a journey, not only to bring comfort to Matthewson's widow, his old friend and former lover, Ruth, but into the past where decades old secrets and betrayals are disclosed.Author Simon Mawer writes, "At some time or other you must confront your past. We are our past...There is nothing else, and none of it can be undone." Mawer visits the past of a group of people who are intimately connected through friendship, love, lust, jealousy, competition, hatred and blood ties. The enormous power of some of Mawer's characters is almost overwhelming at times, as is their extreme fragility and vulnerability. His prose is masterful and poignant. The plot is riveting, compelling, almost brutal, in its honesty. I have never been very interested in the sport of climbing, but Mawer's narrative transported me, time and time again, on exhilarating treks up mountainsides; the action so vividly described that I felt that I was one of the climbers. His descriptions of landscapes, both fierce and bucolic, are as visual as paintings. Mawer is indeed a master craftsman.This is a novel of love, of moral choices and decisions that life forces us to make. Sometimes the repercussions of these decisions echo into the future, for generations to come. This is truly one of the most amazingly original novels I have read in years and it has effected me deeply. I cannot praise "The Fall" highly enough!JANA

I spent a day and a half gobbling this imaginative, enveloping novel down. I don't think I need to say much more than the fans here have said already, except perhaps to add that at year's end, THE FALL is going to stand among the year's best for me, perhaps even at the number one spot. For me, everything in this tale of passion and friendship, love and betrayal, worked. Don't let the thought of the moutaineering scenes scare you off, they're superbly done, and metaphorically valid. The scenes of London during the Blitz are among the most vivid descriptions if that time I've ever read.I look forward now to going back and reading earlier Mawber. This is definitely an incredibly versatile author with an important future.

Robert Dewar suffered a broken leg and the loss of three toes after nearly freezing to death on a mountain climbing expedition. It was enough to move him away from climbing to a more grounded career in art procurement. Years later, his comfort zone is shaken when he learns that his oldest friend and former partner, Jamie Matthewson, has fallen to his death after a dangerous solo climb. Robert veers back toward his past despite his wife's objections and heads to Wales to comfort Jamie's attractive grieving widow, Ruth. Eve Dewar awaits her husband's return and wonders how delving into the past might change him. This detour places Robert in the company of Caroline, Jamie's eccentric mother, a woman for whom Robert's mother once harbored an unexplained level of disdain. Time has softened Caroline's rough edges, yet her mind is sharp. Conversely, Robert's mother, Diana, sits in a retirement home with her mind slowly fading. Guy Matthewson, once married to Caroline and a pivotal part of the story, remains frozen on a mountainside so high up that he will probably never be recovered. All events collide. Despite the unnecessary use of the same four-letter word in varying forms by different characters, Simon Mawer has written a lovely book. The characters magically spring forth from the page and dance before the reader. His natural narrative style and use of tension blend together wonderfully to create a powerful story of love and deception.