Review – Lean, Fall, Stand by Jon McGregor

Synopsis:

The highly anticipated new novel from the Costa-award winning, three-times Booker-longlisted author of Reservoir 13.

When an Antarctic research expedition goes wrong, the consequences are far-reaching – for the men involved and for their families back home.

Robert ‘Doc’ Wright, a veteran of Antarctic field work, holds the clues to what happened, but he is no longer able to communicate them. While Anna, his wife, navigates the sharp contours of her new life as a carer, Robert is forced to learn a whole new way to be in the world.

Award-winning novelist Jon McGregor returns with a stunning novel that mesmerizingly and tenderly unpicks the notion of heroism and explores the indomitable human impulse to tell our stories – even when words fail us. A meditation on the line between sacrifice and selfishness this is a story of the undervalued, unrecognised courage it can take just to get through the day.

My Review:

Lean: something terrible is going on, I can’t fall, I have to continue, I lean to support myself, I can’t fall…

Fall: I can’t do it anymore. I fell and this is the new me now…

Stand: who are these people? Are they my new people?

I finished Lean, Fall, Stand the other night and j still think about it now. It is a story about an expedition in Antarctica goes wrong, about the aftermath of the event and the community and people that come with it as a result of it. I find the structure of the story very uniqued. What I love the most about the story is the clever way Jon McGregor plays with the words. The way the words reflect the mind is so clever and it is not like anything I have read before. It is very emotive and adds such a great dimension to the story. I don’t want to say too much of the story as there are elements of surprises in the book I really like.

I do think this is a niche book but if you love stories about expeditions and a very different and uniqued book about the aftermath of a trauma, this book is definitely for you!

Thank you so much 4th Estate Books for gifting me this copy to review!