This was a superbly engaging book with an intriguing plot. I had no idea rock climbing and mountain climbing were two sides of the same coin.

I liked this book a lot. Great characters and an ending that was both poignant and satisfying. ( )

This is the second of Simon Mawer's novels that I have read and thoroughly enjoyed. He is a wonderful writer, lyrical and psychologically insightful. I find his stories unpredictable and surprising and in this novel (as in Trapeze) he is capable of creating considerable suspense. This book is about mountain climbing--something I have minimal interest in, but which Mawer is knowledgeable about from his own experience and which he mines thoroughly for its metaphorical potential (something that does interest me).

Trapeze was set during WWII, and The Fall goes between that era to the 60s to times closer to the present. I love writing about the war years, but I felt that Mawer gets the shifts in time right. His characters, his settings, and his themes are all believable and compelling. ( )

I loved his writing about the mountains, the elements and the climbing. Bravo for that. However, In my opinion, his characters needed more emotional flesh. Overall I liked this book. I liked The Glass Room by the same author much better though. ( )

Why isn't Simon Mawer better known?

In the last twelve months I must have read about 160 books, including three by Mawer, each of which would easily qualify in the top ten among that selection. First there was "The Glass Room", quite hypnotic in its recounting of the Second World War through the vehicle of a fantastic house in Czechoslovakia. The there was "The Girl Who Fell From the Sky", a spellbinding tale about a young English woman who was parachuted behind the German lines in France to help the resistance. Shades of William Boyd's "Restless" and Sebastian Faulks's Charlotte Gray,but probably even better written than either of them.

With The Fall he has ploughed a very different furrow, but with equally entrancing effect. The book opens with the description of a lone middle-aged mountaineer attempting to cross a forbidding overhanging outcrop of rock, and then plummeting to his death. The climber is James "Jamies" Matthewson, a celebrated mountaineer and son of another, Guy Matthewson, who had died attempting to conquer Kanchenjunga. Because of his prominent status within climbing circles Jamie's death makes the radio news where it is heard by Rob Dewar, art gallery proprietor and former boyhood friend of Matthewson, then driving through the West Midlands on his way back home to London. Stunned at the sudden death of his former friend, on a whim Rob decides to drive to Jamie's home in North Wales.

Mawer then takes us through a series of flashbacks in which we see Rob and Jamie meeting and becoming friendly. We also discover that the two boys' mothers had known each other during the war, and we see contrasting portraits of their two fathers. As the two boys grow through their teens Jamie shows precocious talent as a climber. Rob follows him, but lacks some of the creaticve flair of his friend, though he does fulfil an important role as the voice of reason.

The descriptions of the climbing are engaging without being overladen with technicalities. I assume that Mawr himself must be an accomplished climber, but he deftly avoids the trap of letting a personal interest intrude to the extent of alienating the non-specialist reader. His characters are also utterly plausible, and essentially empathetic. This is an adroitly crafted novel with a gripping plot that deserves to be more widely known and read. ( )

Loved this book. Amazing read, and his knowledge of climbing and mountaineering is staggering. On an equal level with his understanding of human emotion, male and female, and all life's complexities. Loved it! ( )