Breaking Her Fall - by Stephen Goodwin (Paperback)

About the Book

When Tucker Jones' concern for his teenage daughter's antics turns into violence, a high school boy ends up severely injured. Goodwin's emotionally charged novel addresses parents' deepest fears as Tucker finds his family, career and financial security in the balance.

Book Synopsis

"Breaking Her Fall is a corker-- vivid, brilliantly marbled with harmonies and textures and people vibrant with life." -- Richard Bausch

Just before eleven on an ordinary summer night in Washington, D.C., Tucker Jones picks up the phone, expecting to hear that his teenage daughter, Kat, is back from the movies. But the caller is another parent, a man who tells Tucker that Kat was actually at a party-- and makes a shocking allegation about what happened to her there. From that moment Breaking Her Fall sweeps irresistibly forward to it s wrenching, and redemptive, conclusion.

In a blind rage, Tucker races to the party to find Kat already departed, but his full-boil interrogation of the boys still present spills over into a confrontation-- and ends with one of the boys crashing into a glass tabletop. In a second, his rage turns to remorse, and he soon finds himself under arrest. Tucker could easily lose his home and his business, but he is most concerned about losing his daughter.

Stephen Goodwin writes with insight and rare power about the way that passion rearranges lives. As Tucker and Kat and everyone around them seek to repair the damages of that night, Breaking Her Fall charts their uncommonly difficult passage from despair to reconciliation and hope with extraordinary grace.

From the Back Cover

"A frank, plain-spoken, passionate novel that got its grips on me. It is, in one sense, a page turner, and in another a true and good story of human frailty and imperfection survived." - Richard Ford
On an ordinary summer night, Tucker Jones picks up the phone, expecting to hear from his fourteen-year-old daughter Kat. Instead it's another parent, who reports that Kat is not, as promised, at the movies, but at a party--and makes a shocking allegation about her activities there. Furious, Tucker races to the party. Kat has departed, but a full-boil interrogation ends with one of the teenage boys sent crashing into a glass tabletop. Rage turns instantly to remorse, and Tucker is arrested. He could easily lose his home and his business. But, most importantly, will he lose his daughter?
Breaking Her Fall charts the passage of a family through an all-too-imaginable crisis with extraordinary realism and transcendant grace.
"Somehow--and dramatizing this "somehow" is Goodwin's strength--a family, nearly destroyed in a single instant on a single night, manages to become whole again. What ultimately matters in this novel is finding a way to "break" a daughter's fall and heal a father's heart."--The Washington Post Book World
Stephen Goodwin is a professor of creative writing at George Mason University and the author of three previous books. A former director of the literature program at the National Endowment for the Arts, he has served two terms as president of the PEN/Faulkner Foundation. He lives in Washington, D.C.

Review Quotes

ADVANCE PRAISE FOR BREAKING HER FALL
"A corker--vivid, brilliantly marbled with harmonies and textures and people vibrant with life."--Richard Bausch

PRAISE FOR THE BLOOD OF PARADISE
"A book that seems laden, rich, powerful. The three characters at its center are so profoundly alive that whatever room you're reading this in will seem densely populated."--Anne Tyler, The Washington Post Book World

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About the Author

STEPHEN GOODWIN is a professor of creative writing at George Mason University and the author of three previous books. Goodwin has also directed the literature program at the National Endowment for the Arts, and he served two terms as president of the PEN/Faulkner Foundation. He lives in Washington, D.C.