Falling Out of Time

Following Grossman's widely acclaimed novel To the End of the Land, a national bestseller and Globe and Mail Best Book, this is a fable of parental grief -- a powerfully distilled exploration of understanding and acceptance. David Grossman, a writer whose exceptional humanity, grace, and sheer brilliance as a storyteller have earned him acclaim around the world, has created an inspiring, compassionate, and genre-defying drama -- part play, part prose, and a fable of pure poetry -- to tell the story of bereaved parents setting out to reach their beloved lost children. It begins in a kitchen, in a small village, where a man is speaking with his wife about their loss. He announces that he is leaving, and he embarks on a walk in search of his dead son. Slowly, more and more people are drawn to him, joining him on his ever-widening circular journey around the town. Little by little, the reader realizes that the people of this anonymous town are also mourners, each having to endure their own bereavement. Inspired by the tragic loss of David Grossman's own son, in combat, Falling Out of Time asks, Can one overcome death by sheer speech or memory? Is it possible, even for a fleeting moment, to free the dead from their death, to call to them and make them present once more? Grossman's answer to such questions is a hymn to people from all walks of life -- from a Net-Mender to a Duke -- who ultimately find solace in their community of shared grief and in a kind of acceptance they could not have reached without coming together.