Stéphane Gerson

Disaster Falls is a tragic story about loss, grieving, and healing. It's a parent's worst nightmare.

I found myself crying throughout the book and the story felt so real to me. Everything they endured can be felt as the words feel as though they're just pouring out of him. As a parent, I think the emotions are so strong because you put yourself in their shoes, and glimpse the agony and terror they live with.

I almost wished the story was told in chronological order, but it makes sense in the end.

3.5***

Thanks to Netgalley and the author for a copy in exchange for an honest review.… (more)

I received an Advance Reader's Copy of this book.

This is a beautifully written memoir by a father whose 8-year-old son, Owen, dies in a river rafting accident in Disaster Falls, Utah. The author tells his story in pieces, not starting the book with a full account of what happened on the river. His grief is so well described that I could begin to understand a parent's pain after a child's death. Part of the story is the author's own experience with his father's death (after Owen's death), and how many of his emotions came full circle. This story will stay with me for a long time.… (more)

There is no owner’s manual for grief.

Stéphane Gerson calmly shares the story of his family during the five years following the accidental death of an eight year old child. Parts of this book are tough to read. Sometimes I had to put it down. But after starting the book, I needed to know how this family had moved forward, coping with the unimaginable.

The description of the accident itself unfolds as does memory, in flashbacks and remembered premonitions, second thoughts and comforts, clinical facts and suppositions. It nestles amidst the story of a family of four, suddenly a family of three, struggling to make sense of how to go on with their lives individually and, by conscious agreement, together.

Some of what happened after Owen’s death was predictable, some unexpected and seemingly odd - until the reader remembers that each parent, sibling, classmate, and friend experienced this loss in a unique way.… (more)