Michael Christie

This exceptional debut novel is a warm, often funny dramatisation of the balance between anxious love and worthwhile risk

A master of his environment, Christie is also deft at inhabiting the mind of a child in his writing … powerful and page-turning … A first novel that is complex, symbolic and a little bit wondrous.

An astonishing piece of work. Christie combines lyrical prose and true-to-life characters—and skateboarding—to craft a remarkable tale of mothers and sons, and what it means to grow up.

There are moments of real tenderness, and real strangeness too, as Will gradually embraces risk and seeks friendship. It feels less part of some sub-genre cooked up by the marketing department than a contribution to a real, archetypal literary tradition, that of the coming-of-age story.

If I Fall, If I Die is an expertly crafted work of great heart and sensitivity. I can’t recall a truer or more beautiful debut.

Patrick deWitt, author of The Sisters Brothers

A bruiser of a tale, one you will feel in your shins and your solar plexus. Michael Christie is a virtuosic prose stylist and boy is he so very wise and so funny on families and friendships, fear and joy, and the physics of sky and pavement. If I Fall, If I Die is a death-defying coming of age story; it’s also as weird and as convincing a love story as I have ever read. And so beautifully told that you’ll want to pass it on immediately.

A lyrically descriptive tale with an endearing young protagonist

Beautiful … [a] wonderful, quirky, eccentric book full of wit and spectacular prose. If you are looking for a unique read which you can immerse yourself in, with stimulating language and characters to latch on to and love, then If I Fall, If I Die needs to be your next book purchase. A book that I will go back to and read again and a stunning first novel from Michael Christie. A wonderful treasure of a book.

The reader alternates between knowing more than the characters and searching to unravel the mystery, with creative prose and incremental pay-offs, the 300 pages of Christie’s captivating debut novel fly by

A heartfelt and wondrous debut lauded by Philipp Meyer (New York Times bestselling author of The Son) as "astonishing", introducing a supremely gifted and exciting new voice in fiction. 
 
Will has never been to the outside, at least not since he can remember. 
 
And he has certainly never got to know anyone other than his mother, a fiercely loving yet wildly eccentric agoraphobe who drowns in panic at the thought of opening the front door. Their little world comprises only the rooms in their home, each named for various exotic locales and filled with Will's art projects. But soon the confines of his world close in on him. 
 
Despite his mother's protests, Will ventures outside clad in a protective helmet and braces himself for danger. He eventually meets and befriends Jonah, a quiet boy who introduces him to skateboarding. 
 
Will welcomes his new world with enthusiasm, his fears fading and his body hardening with each new bump, scrape and fall. But life quickly gets complicated. When a local boy goes missing, Will and Jonah want to uncover what happened. They embark on an extraordinary adventure that pulls Will far from the confines of his closed-off world and into the throes of early adulthood and the dangers that everyday life offers. 
 
If I Fall, If I Die is a remarkable debut full of dazzling prose and unforgettable characters, as well as a poignant and heartfelt depiction of coming of age.

Michael Christie

Praise for If I Fall, If I Die

This exceptional debut novel is a warm, often funny dramatisation of the balance between anxious love and worthwhile risk

A master of his environment, Christie is also deft at inhabiting the mind of a child in his writing … powerful and page-turning … A first novel that is complex, symbolic and a little bit wondrous.

A captivating debut novel

This exceptional debut novel is a warm, often funny dramatisation of the balance between anxious love and worthwhile risk

A master of his environment, Christie is also deft at inhabiting the mind of a child in his writing … powerful and page-turning … A first novel that is complex, symbolic and a little bit wondrous.

A captivating debut novel

This exceptional debut novel is a warm, often funny dramatisation of the balance between anxious love and worthwhile risk

A master of his environment, Christie is also deft at inhabiting the mind of a child in his writing … powerful and page-turning … A first novel that is complex, symbolic and a little bit wondrous.

A captivating debut novel

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