kats05 's review for:

The Shock of the Fall by Nathan Filer
4.0

A worthy winner of the 'Costa First Novel' award 2013, this is a striking debut novel by someone who has found the right angle of writing about a serious mental health issue, schizophrenia. An experienced mental health nurse, Nathan Filer has had the courage, the talent and the insights to write about this "sly and slithering snake of a disease"; I applaud him.

The fictional narrator's reflections and emotional anecdotes of his childhood and teenage years are sometimes shocking and often scary (so vivid that I was painfully reminded of the angst I felt during my work experience in a psychiatric hospital in my student days, and why I chose not to pursue a career in clinical psychology after all), but also filled with many funny and poignant moments, and always insightful and very touching.

I am looking forward to reading whatever Nathan Filer decides to write next.