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Before the Fall
On sale
9th November 2017
Price: £19.99
Winner of the 2017 Edgar Award for Best Novel
Selected by The Sunday Times as one of the top page-turners of summer 2017
FROM THE CREATOR OF THE AWARD WINNING FARGO AND LEGION TV SERIES
‘Hawley’s sublime prose glows on every page in this literary thriller of the highest quality’ Daily Mail
From the creator of the award winning FARGO and LEGION TV series comes the stunning thriller that critics are calling ‘[a] literary thriller of the highest quality’ (Daily Mail) and ‘an unequivocally excellent book’ (Literary Review).
THE RICH ARE DIFFERENT. BUT FATE IS BLIND.
A private jet plunges into the sea.
The only survivors are down-on his luck artist Scott Burroughs and JJ Bateman, the four year old son of a super-rich TV executive.
For saving the boy, Scott is suddenly a hero.
And then, as the official investigation is rapidly overtaken by a media frenzy, it seems he may also be a villain.
Why was he on the plane in the first place, and why did it crash?
(P)2017 Oakhill Publishing
Selected by The Sunday Times as one of the top page-turners of summer 2017
FROM THE CREATOR OF THE AWARD WINNING FARGO AND LEGION TV SERIES
‘Hawley’s sublime prose glows on every page in this literary thriller of the highest quality’ Daily Mail
From the creator of the award winning FARGO and LEGION TV series comes the stunning thriller that critics are calling ‘[a] literary thriller of the highest quality’ (Daily Mail) and ‘an unequivocally excellent book’ (Literary Review).
THE RICH ARE DIFFERENT. BUT FATE IS BLIND.
A private jet plunges into the sea.
The only survivors are down-on his luck artist Scott Burroughs and JJ Bateman, the four year old son of a super-rich TV executive.
For saving the boy, Scott is suddenly a hero.
And then, as the official investigation is rapidly overtaken by a media frenzy, it seems he may also be a villain.
Why was he on the plane in the first place, and why did it crash?
(P)2017 Oakhill Publishing
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Reviews
Before the Fall is a ravishing and riveting beauty of a thriller. It's also a deep exploration of desire, betrayal, creation, family, fate, mortality, and rebirth. It's one part Dennis Lehane, one part Dostoevsky. I was spellbound from first page to last; I haven't fully recovered yet.
I started and finished Before the Fall in one day. That begins to tell you what kind of smart, compellingly dramatic read it is. So read it.
Before the Fall is an astonishing, character-driven tour-de-force. The story is a multi-layered, immersive examination of truth, relationships, and our unquenchable thirst for the media's immediate explanation of unfathomable tragedy.
This isn't just a good novel; it's a great one. I trusted no one in these pages, yet somehow cared about them all. Before the Fall brings a serrated edge to every character, every insight, and every wicked twist.
A masterly blend of mystery, suspense, tragedy, and shameful media hype...a gritty tale of a man overwhelmed by unwelcome notoriety, with a stunning, thoroughly satisfying conclusion.
Like the successful screenwriter that he is, Hawley piles on enough intrigues and plot complications to keep you hooked.
Noah Hawley really knows how to keep a reader turning the pages, but there's more to the novel than suspense. On one hand Before the Fall is a complex, compulsively readable thrill ride of a novel. On the other, it is an exploration of the human condition, a meditation on the vagaries of human nature, the dark side of celebrity, the nature of art, the power of hope and the danger of an unchecked media. The combination is a potent, gritty thriller that exposes the high cost of news as entertainment and the randomness of fate.
This is an unequivocally excellent book, a literary novel, a thriller, a whodunit and a meditation about life and love. Each paragraph deserves a rereading, but is too exciting to let one pause.
This is one of the year's best suspense novels, a mesmerizing, surprise-jammed mystery that works purely on its own, character-driven terms...Mr. Hawley has made it very, very easy to race through his book in a state of breathless suspense.
High-class entertainment.
As a pacey whodunit...this is the perfect summer read.
There are some books...that stay with you long after you've read them. The characters are so real and because of this their fates matter. Before The Fall by Noah Hawley is one of these books.
An addictive thriller whose thematic richness is reminiscent of Franzen.
A searingly told, multi-layered portrait of celebrity in the modern world with a tantalising mystery at its heart...Hawley's sublime prose glows on every page in this literary thriller of the highest quality, which never loses its grip.
A thriller of masterful precision...Hawley meditates on celebrity, modern journalism and timeless heroism, the rich American's psyche post-9/11 and messy politics, and he does it with nuanced, precise style. This is a thriller that has brains as well as balls.
Overall, it's hard to imagine a better marriage of genre and literary fiction.
This is a brilliantly sharp and intelligent thriller. Hawley has written four previous novels. If they're anything like this I'll be reading them all.
A compelling combination of domestic drama and conspiracy puzzler.
[A] Literary thriller of genius.
He has an intuitive understanding of human behaviour and an instinctive grasp of plot that make him a master storyteller
A suspense story full of red herrings and tension
Fast, compelling, gripping
It's a compassionate, insightful novel, as rich thematically as it is narratively, compelling... Hawley explores the discord between fame and reality, and the extent to which the media distorts the truth, themes that couldn't be more relevant in Trump's America
Hawley combines a thriller's tight structure and addictive narrative with characterisation and thematic richness reminiscent of Jonathan Franzen