Book info

• Title After the Fall
• Author Charity Norman
• Year 2012
• Genre Contemporary

In the quiet of a New Zealand winter's night, a rescue helicopter is sent to airlift a five-year-old boy with severe internal injuries. He's fallen from the upstairs veranda of an isolated farmhouse, and his condition is critical. At first, Finn's fall looks like a horrible accident; after all, he's prone to sleepwalking. Only his frantic mother, Martha McNamara, knows how it happened. And she isn't telling. Not yet. Maybe not ever. Tragedy isn't what the McNamara family expected when they moved to New Zealand. For Martha, it was an escape. For her artist husband Kit, it was a dream. For their small twin boys, it was an adventure. For sixteen-year-old Sacha, it was the start of a nightmare. They end up on the isolated east coast of the North Island, seemingly in the middle of a New Zealand tourism campaign. But their peaceful idyll is soon shattered as the choices Sacha makes lead the family down a path which threatens to destroy them all. Martha finds herself facing a series of impossible decisions, each with devastating consequences for her family.

Thoughts

This book starts with a small child falling off a balcony and being rushed to hospital, so you get the tone right from the beginning. The story then dips back in time and follows a family through the drama of heading towards that horrific incident.

It’s full of twists and turns and interesting characters, but I have to admit I guessed where it was going about halfway through. It was still interesting to follow to the conclusion, although it made it slightly more depressing.

Overall, it’s a good but sad story, well told, and with a satisfying conclusion to events.

Rating: 3 / 5