The Year of Falling

Makaro Press, Eastbourne, 2015. Good secondhand condition.

I am two people now. I have split. One of us will be seeing Caroline's fiance later this evening. The other is smiling politely. He is a square of dark chocolate, my morning espresso, a Kahlua cocktail on a Friday night. He is muscle, sinew, heart, blood. Pump and beat and flow. He makes me spin. When the porcelain dolls start turning up on Selina's doorstep, she knows it's a bad sign. Shortly afterwards she embarks on an ill-judged affair with a celebrity TV chef. Both events, and the lies and untold truths at their heart, precipitate a spectacular fall from grace for high-flying graphic artist, Selina. Enter Smith: the sister who saved Selina once before. But this time Smith's life is complicated by a small boy called Ragnar, and she's almost too late. Janis Freegard's novel is a beguiling urban tale that moves from the hills of Brooklyn, Wellington, to the streets of Iceland via Takaka. Packed with characters who hold the reader to the page, The year of falling has the strut and gleam of a fairytale while not being afraid of the stuff of flesh and blood that makes people act the way they do. A novel to fall into...but beware, you might find it hard to climb out again.