It’s going to be incredibly hard to write a logical review about this book because of all the thoughts, feelings and just general things that this book has brought up.  It was, firstly, such a surprise. I deliberately chose it (thank you Orenda Books for sending me a stack of publications to work through!) because I knew it wouldn’t have been something I would ordinarily choose. So many people that have read it after ordering from us, have got in touch to say the same. I’m so glad that I stepped away from the norm. If you’re looking for something to prompt you to do the same, then look no further than this book…

This book is set in Deptford in the 1970s – a period of time I never experienced but have read plenty about. West Camel absolutely nails it with the descriptions and sense of time. From almost every page comes that claustrophobic, breathless hot Summer heatwave feeling, made even more so due to the proximity of the residents in the tower block. The smell of the stairwells, the sound of the river, the clang of a heavy door… the breeze on the rooftop… it’s all there. You will feel this book immensely.

This book so topical of the 70s but even now of some of the prejudice and inequality that many people face for a number of reasons. The themes explored within this book will resonate with many, and are very significant. Race, gender, sexuality, class, family, work, discrimination, poverty and so much more. How are all these things artfully and respectfully covered in one book? I don’t know. They just are. West Camel is incredibly talented.

The characters are flawed, honest, but flawed. Two sets of twins and the secrets and lies that bind them also tear them apart. But the most surprising character of them all? The tower… the block of flats… the building at the heart of everything that happens within this book. The secrets within its depths are just as surprising as those within the people described in every chapter. There is so much symbolism in the inclusion of this building – it wasn’t needed, the story could have flowed without it, but it wouldn’t have been the same and not nearly as good.

This is a book with so many meanings, not least that title… Fall. Yet the book itself moves along without hurry. It’s a gentle read. The pace was beautiful. My reading, however, was not. I stole chapters whenever I could because I couldn’t tear myself away.  So much falls, so much unravels, but everything about this book has been so well constructed and put together. Title, cover, artwork inside… to the very last word on the final page. Fall.

About the Book…

Estranged brothers are reunited over plans to develop the tower block where they grew up, but the desolate estate becomes a stage for reliving the events of one life-changing summer.

Twins Aaron and Clive have been estranged for forty years. Aaron still lives in the empty, crumbling tower block on the riverside in Deptford where they grew up. Clive is a successful property developer, determined to turn the tower into luxury flats.

But Aaron is blocking the plan and their petty squabble becomes something much greater when two ghosts from the past – twins Annette and Christine – appear in the tower. At once, the desolate estate becomes a stage on which the events of one scorching summer are relived – a summer that shattered their lives, and changed everything forever…

Grim, evocative and exquisitely rendered, Fall is a story of friendship and family – of perception, fear and prejudice, the events that punctuate our journeys into adulthood, and the indelible scars they leave – a triumph of a novel that will affect you long after the final page has been turned.

Genre: Contemporary Fiction
Publication: 9th December 2021

About the Book Box…

Fall was our book of the month in February 2022 – a bold choice deviating from the norm and expanding our genres! You can order your box here (whilst stocks last) and get your hands on a signed edition paperback.

About the Author…

Born and bred in south London – and not the Somerset village with which he shares a name – West Camel worked as an editor in higher education and business before turning his attention to the arts and publishing.

He has worked as a book and arts journalist, and was editor at Dalkey Archive Press, where he edited the Best European Fiction 2015 anthology, before moving to new press Orenda Books just after its launch. He currently combines his work as editor at Orenda Books with writing and editing a wide range of material for various arts organisations, including ghost-writing a New-Adult novel and editing The Riveter magazine for the European Literature Network. He has also written several short scripts, which have been produced in London’s fringe theatres, and was longlisted for the Old Vic’s 12 playwrights project.

Attend is his first novel (slipped into the Orenda Books submission pile under a false name), and it was shortlisted for the Polari First Novel Award and longlisted for the Guardian Not the Booker Prize. West lives in London.

Connect with the Author…

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