Fall - Softcover

Colin McAdam has written for Harpers’ and The Walrus. His novel Some Great Thing won the Amazon/Books in Canada First Novel Award and was nominated for the Governor General’s Literary Award, the Rogers Writers’ Trust Award, the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize, and for the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize in the U.K. His second novel, Fall, was shortlisted for the Scotiabank Giller Prize and awarded the Paragraphe Hugh MacLennon Prize. He lives in Toronto.

A tense literary whodunit set in a prestigious Canadian boarding school, McAdam's second novel (after Some Great Thing) delivers suspense and cunning psychological insight. Chapters alternate between the recollections of Noel, a coldly intelligent loner, and the stream-of-consciousness of Julius, a handsome, popular athlete whose girlfriend, Fall, vanishes one day. Unstated but implicit is Fall's fate at the hands of one of the boys, but, as in many literary mysteries, the plot is secondary to the graceful prose and characterizations. The male characters are drawn with precision; Fall less so, as befits their objectification of her, though the relationship between Fall and Julius is depicted with a bittersweet charm. Julius's point of view is particularly well-done, conveying the inner turmoil of a lovestruck teenager. Noel's memories of their senior year, meanwhile, subtly reflect his emotional distance from others while suggesting a solution to the crime. The book is pleasingly paced and absorbing, and likely to appeal to fans of Arturo Perez-Reverte and Jess Walter. (June)
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