Nathan Filer

"Reading is a bit like hallucinating."

The book tells the story of Matthew Homes, whose entire life is turned upside down after the death of his older brother Simon whilst on holiday some 10 years previously. It is apparent from the outset that Matthew had some hand in Simon's death but what really happened that night? What is clear is that soon afterwards Matthew's own life begins to spiral downward, and it’s clear he will never recover from his brother's death.

The story is told from show more Matthew's first-person perspective throughout and consists of both handwritten diary entries and entries typed on a typewriter, as well as letters. The narrative is stark and disjointed and the reader is given an in-depth insight in to Matthew’s thoughts, feelings and behaviours. The narrative isn't told in chronological order but features many time jumps, from the time before Simon's death and Mathew's present hospitalisation but despite it's complex structure it is relatively easy to follow.

Matthew feels responsible for Simon’s death and his schizophrenia stems from his grief. He is an intelligent, emotional and at times funny young man struggling to cope with a very cruel and debilitating illness . He is an well-written, three dimensional character who made me run the full gamut of emotions as did his other family members.

Matthew’s grandmother,“Nanny-Noo”, is the first to realise that Matthew’s illness is taking over his life, and that he needs urgent help. Matthew’s parents are both suffering from their own overwhelming grief and it’s clear that they also blame Matthew for his brother’s death, and they struggle to help Matthew with his mental health issues.

"Some memories refuse to be locked in time and place, they are always present."

Be warned: his novel explores schizophrenia in great detail, including episodes of psychosis, dissociation, hallucinations and self-destructive behaviours. Matthew is eventually admitted to a psychiatric hospital and we are given a fairly depressing view of such institutions. Ultimately Matthew decides to face his demons and we eventually find out just how Simon died.

As previously stated this book explores mental illness but it also shines a bright light on grief and how it can affect lives. Overall I found this a compelling read but I must admit that I preferred (if that is really the right word) reading the first two thirds or so of it which largely featured Matthew's younger years as the illness was developing rather than later section which I found rather repetitive despite realising that this was a deliberate ploy by the author to show Matthew's fractured mental state.

I was initially drawn to this book because my own son suffers from schizophrenia, although thankfully not yet as seriously, so I was interested in reading a little more about the illness. But you don't have to know someone who is suffering from mental illness to get something from it and as such I would heartily recommend it. show less

Here's a book about mental illness, written by a mental health nurse. Personally, as someone working in health and social care and who was also diagnosed with one such illness (a form of bipolar) I didn't learn much. If you already have a background in the field, then, this is not for you. Whom this book is for is a larger and popular audience to get a better grip of such a disconcerting topic, too often plagued by myths and assumptions, at times dangerously and ignorantly peddled by show more clueless (or deliberately sensationalist) mass medias. And, oh boy! When it comes to debunking and clarifying things, what a great job it does!

First there is the welcome angle: Nathan Filer tackles the topic as much from his own perspective as a clinician whose practice has evolved over the years than by giving the pen (so to speak) to mentally ill people themselves, those stories are the backbone to it all. There's no lecturing here. It's all about human compassion, understanding and dignity -yes, a so-called 'person-centred approach'.

Then, there is the talent with which he structures his book, tackling from stigma (especially how we actually re-enforce it by constantly bringing the 'stigma' issue up... -it's a brilliant argument!) to debunking prejudices (schizophrenia features a great deal in here...) and offering a welcome critical outlook on many other related topics (from the controversies surrounding the DSM to the root causes, or supposed so, of many mental health conditions and disorders...). It covers a wide range of subjects, but it never lose tracks of itself and, above all, always remains accessible and enthralling.

You can give it a miss if you are a professional or have a solid understanding of the subject matter already, but, if you're new to it all, then here's the perfect read for you! It's as humanly compassionate as it is intellectually compelling. show less

In The Shock of the Fall by Nathan Filer, 19 year old Matt Holmes is a decent-seeming young man who is driven to aberrant behavior. "I have an illness, a disease with the shape and sound of a snake. Whenever I learn something new, it learns it too … My illness knows everything I know. This was a difficult thing to get my head around." He's schizophrenic, and a compulsive writer on an old typewriter his grandmother gave him. He also has artistic talent, and we get to see his drawings in the show more book, along with other visual elements (like hand-written letters and differing type fonts) that fit with his story. He's trying to deal with his deep sorrow and guilt over the death of his older, Down's Syndrome brother Simon, that happened on a family vacation when they were kids. He also struggles with the demands of the mental health system and the desirable/undesirable effects of his medication, while his family struggles with his swerve into strangeness.

Simon haunts him everywhere, but it is a haunting he welcomes and lives for:

"I stumbled into a new morning, blurred at its edges. The streets stirred to life under a cloudy sky. People were staring at me, pointing, or turning quickly away. Each of them had him inside; his many, many atoms, and each of them with his face, his beautiful smiling face.

It wasn't frightening. It wasn't like that.

It was glorious."

Mental health might mean losing that connection with Simon. Hmm.

The author is a registered health nurse and also a performance poet, and he's authored an unusual, genuine and engrossing book. Matt is good company, with all his problems, and the other characters are well-drawn - including his unstable mother and bonhomie father, and loyal grandma Nanny Noo. Matt manages to reach a surprisingly sweet but believable ending. This one won the Costa Book of the Year Award 2013 across the pond, and deserves to be better known in the U.S. and elsewhere. Four and a half stars. show less

Nathan Filer’s Costa Book of the Year-winning first novel chronicles the mental breakdown and guilt-ridden recovery process of Matt Homes, a young man whose childhood was wrecked by the death of his older brother Simon, who suffered from Down’s Syndrome. On holiday with their parents when Matt and Simon were children, an episode of mischievous nighttime tomfoolery instigated by Matt ends with Simon dead. Matt’s crushing guilt over the event is a contributing factor (one presumes) to show more his later diagnosis of schizophrenia, and the novel is framed as a document Matt is writing as part of his treatment to help himself and others understand what happened. The story proceeds in Matt’s at times matter-of-fact, at times funny, at times caustically sarcastic voice, a voice that effectively and entertainingly conveys his resentment, frustration, and occasional bewilderment with a psychiatric health care system that seems more concerned with following official procedure than with making lives better. Matt is perceptive, wise to his own coping strategies and those of the adults in his life. Sometimes amused, sometimes disheartened, he watches people struggle to deal with him and his disease, and decides to make it easy on them, or not. In his telling, Matt’s parents are sympathetic: kind and caring but ineffectual, his mother depressive and over-protective, his father helpless in the face of tragedy. Other characters do not come off so well, particularly the decision-makers—bureaucrats and psychiatrists—who are depicted as aloof and judgmental. What happened the night that Simon died is withheld until near the end: only revealed as Matt’s journey comes full circle and he accepts that people other than him must share responsibility for the tragedy. Filer’s accomplishment in this novel should be applauded. He writes convincingly in the voice of a 19-year-old man suffering from a devastating and debilitating illness. His indictment of the British health care system is not subtle, but oftentimes change does not result from subtlety. Filer is trained as a psychiatric nurse, so he is writing with his eyes wide open. Dramatically powerful, authentic and socially relevant, The Shock of the Fall is not an easy book, but its rewards are many. show less