Falling is Like Flying

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Description

This is a story she never wanted to tell, but in the end she had no choice.

When her older sister dies at the age of sixty-nine, it brings back a past the author thought she had left behind. Incensed, she delves back into her childhood, recreating the abusive world that she grew up in, ruled over by her tyrannical father, The Minotaur.

In a narrative by turns shockingly dark and strangely beautiful, she retraces her path through the phantasmagorical labyrinth, bringing a tale of silent trauma to a triumphant, raucous conclusion. Falling is Like Flying is an extraordinary autobiographical story of abuse and resilience, a literary triumph that reminds us what language is capable of.

Reviews

'Uphoff does not mince her words: humans are like animals eternally tending to their wounds. Her incredibly sensitive, almost alchemical style contains echoes of Margaret Atwood, Maggie Nelson and Sylvia Plath' - Humo

'Devastates by showing that what is most painful contains great beauty as well. Falling is Like Flying is like a richly coloured stained-glass window, a starry sky of stylistic invention.' - NRC Handelsblad

'Manon Uphoff has succeeded in finding the language for a story that is almost impossible to tell' - De Volkskrant

Author Bio

Manon Uphoff was born in 1962 into a family of thirteen children. She left home at 16, went on to study literary theory and is now a writer and artist. Her debut Begeerte was nominated for the AKO Literatuurprijs, the Anton Wachterprijs, and the ECI-prijs. Her novel Gemis was nominated for the Libris Prize, the biggest prize in the Netherlands for a single work. Falling is Like Flying has been a literary phenomenon in the Netherlands, making 32 'Best of 2019' lists and being shortlisted for the Libris Prize. It is the first of Manon's books to be translated into English.