By Simon Mawer
Little, Brown and Company
Hardcover

Robert Dewar suffered a broken leg and the loss of three toes after nearly freezing to death on a mountain climbing expedition. It was enough to move him away from climbing to a more grounded career in art procurement.

Years later, his comfort zone is shaken when he learns that

The Fall Excerpt She laughed, wondering whether he did love her and whether she did love him, and what the point was of talking about it when the war was there, just beyond the horizon. She was no fool. She knew that happiness was transient, blown away by death, by illness, by a dozen lesser things. But for that moment, lying on a Welsh hillside in the sun, she was happy. ©2003 Simon Mawer Published with permission from Little, Brown & Co.

his oldest friend and former partner, Jamie Matthewson, has fallen to his death after a dangerous solo climb. Robert veers back toward his past despite his wife's objections and heads to Wales to comfort Jamie's attractive grieving widow, Ruth. Eve Dewar awaits her husband's return and wonders how delving into the past might change him.

This detour places Robert in the company of Caroline, Jamie's eccentric mother, a woman for whom Robert's mother once harbored an unexplained level of disdain. Time has softened Caroline's rough edges, yet her mind is sharp.

Conversely, Robert's mother, Diana, sits in a retirement home with her mind slowly fading. Guy Matthewson, once married to Caroline and a pivotal part of the story, remains frozen on a mountainside so high up that he will probably never be recovered.

All events collide.

Bookworm's Briefing
Despite the unnecessary use of the same four-letter word in varying forms by different characters, Simon Mawer has written a lovely book. The characters magically spring forth from the page and dance before the reader. His natural narrative style and use of tension blend together wonderfully to create a powerful story of love and deception.

Mawer has a degree from Oxford and lives in Rome. In addition to his other recognized novels, he is the author of Mendel's Dwarf and The Gospel of Judas.