“This is the kind of novel I like best . . . Great writing, great plotting, and a thoughtful plumbing of what makes us human.” –B. A. Shapiro, bestselling author of The Art Forger and The Collector’s Apprentice First, it’s just a barely believable rumor: one person may have survived the midair explosion of a passenger jet on a cross-country course from Washington, DC, to San Francisco. But soon … Washington, DC, to San Francisco. But soon she becomes a national media sensation when “the Falling Woman,” as the press dubs her, is said to have been taken to a Wichita hospital–and then to have disappeared without a trace.
As a dedicated National Transportation Safety Board agent joins the search for clues, he becomes drawn into the woman’s moving and personal fight to keep secret the story of her survival, even from her own family, and possibly at risk to his own career.
The Falling Woman is a novel that asks compelling and controversial questions about the value of life and what should be sacrificed in the name of love.
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Wow, this was a heart stopping thrill ride that got you into your emotions and trying to put yourself into one of the main character’s shoes. And boy was I judgmental! This book will make you second guess yourself and others. It’s so realistically written that I felt as if everything was actually happening right before my eyes as I read. I had to snap myself back into reality to remind myself what was actually real. The writing is so spectacular and I really felt the sweat, tears and feelings of the characters. The storyline is one that is thoroughly researched and you don’t see any poorly executed scenes. This book still resonates with me today and I feel I will be thinking about this book for quite some time. DO NOT MISS THIS ONE!
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Erin and Doug have a beautiful family that includes two twin daughters, successful careers, a nice home and no wants for anything. But the day they got blindsided by Erin’s diagnosis of pancreatic cancer was when their life turned upside down. After going through all the chemo treatments and losing her hair, being sick and feeling miserable, Erin and Doug return to see the Oncologist and receive a most surprising diagnosis; her scans are clean of cancer. The Dr.s’ hesitate to say she is in remission and Erin knows the overall statistics for a pancreatic cancer diagnosis. She decides to go to a retreat among other cancer survivors to process instead of staying around continuing the ongoing treatment. She leaves with secrets only she knows. She boards the plane bound from Washington, D.C. to San Francisco and fades out due to her medication. She is suddenly awakened in chaos, the flight is going down…she is outside of the plane coming down buckled in her seat and she sees everything until she doesn’t. She is rescued and brought to a hospital, the only known survivor of the flight.
But who can survive such a fall? Charlie Radford who works for the NTSB has been assigned to find out. But when he goes to interview her, she’s gone. Someone has come and gotten her from the hospital. What is she hiding and why wouldn’t she want to see her family that believes she died that fateful day? Charlie must make a decision that will affect his job and a secret of a woman whom he doesn’t know and both their lives forever.
Tough Choices. Great Debut. This is a solidly written, compelling story that is a tremendous debut book. Farrell manages to use a miracle during a disaster to show that miracles… are not always that… while also showing just how complicated and messy real life is in oh so many ways. The mystery is solid enough to keep the reader invested, and then the action kicks into high gear a bit as things begin to unravel. Finally, a choice is made in an instant that will affect numerous lives – and Farrell shows all of this with remarkable reality. The overall style and tone won’t necessarily be exactly to everyone’s liking, but stick around – the book really is very, very good. Very much recommended.
Erin is on a flight from DC to California for a cancer retreat. She has pancreatic cancer. When the plane goes down in Kansas, Erin is the only survivor. Erin wants to disappear and not return home to her grown children and husband. She wants to live her remaining time alone not wanting to burden her family. Charlie is the NTSB agent sent to investigate the plane crash. He hears rumors of a survivor and begins to try and find Erin. When Charlie finds Erin he tries to convince her to come forward. She is not interested. She wants to spare her family the pain of finding her to only lose her again to cancer. I enjoyed this book and I truly felt for Erin. What would you do if you were in Erin’s place? I received an advanced readers copy and all opinions are my own.
The Falling Woman
BY Richard Farrell
The Falling Woman is a wonderful novel that is both fast paced and thought provoking read about a lone survivor and a woman battling Pancreatic Cancer.
Erin Geraghty survives a plane explosion over Kansas as she is coming from a Cancer retreat on a flight from from DC to San Francisco. The NTSB investigates the crash and sends Charlie Radford to determine the cause of the crash and confirm Erin’s existence. However, Erin wants to live out the remainder of her life alone and goes into hiding. She is tired of battling this cancer and does not want to cause additional heartache for her loved ones, to only survive this tragic plane explosion then to have to lose her a few months later.
This was such a great read for me. I always navigate to how medical information is written in books as a nurse and appreciate all the research that have gone to write a well-researched topic. I was also quite intrigued with the idea of survivors and lone survivors especially of plane crashes and other major catastrophic events. This book makes for a great group discussion for a book club and buddy reads.
I really enjoyed this one a lot.
Many of us have seen news reports about tragic plane crashes. But how often do we hear of anyone plummeting from the plane and surviving the fall? The Falling Woman takes us down the road of searching that possibility.
The reader is introduced to Charlie Radford and Erin Geraghty in the opening chapters. Charlie, an investigator for the National Transportation Safety Board,
is assigned to work the crash of Pointer Airlines Flight 795. Erin, who has terminal cancer, is aboard that flight. My immediate thought that Erin is the missing passenger was quickly confirmed. Charlie is responsible for proving that the falling woman truly exists.
This book does not focus only on the physical search. The reader is provided insight into the lives and emotions of these characters. Why do they act and feel as they do? Both have internal conflicts to resolve, and we share their struggles. Some of us will understand choices that are made while others may not.
I found this a remarkably well-written debut novel. It is easy to read and the desire to read “just one more chapter” usually meant I read several more before
turning the lights off.
Thank you to the LibraryThing Early Reviewers and Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill for providing me with a copy of this book.
This debut novel written by an actual pilot is credible, fascinating and suspenseful. I zipped through the pages filled with multi-dimensional characters and vibrant sensory details. The thought-provoking concepts will make The Falling Woman a book club favorite.
Erin Geraghty is on a flight from Washington, DC to California to attend a retreat for cancer patients. She has grown tired of her battle with pancreatic cancer and knows that her days are limited. Back at home are her grown children and a deteriorating marriage. While en route, the plane encounters turbulence over Kansas and explodes. Erin is the only survivor.
Charlie Radford is on his first assignment with the NTSB. He is sent to Kansas to identify the victims and help determine what caused the crash. The local news announces that a woman survived the crash and Charlie sets out to confirm her existence. At the same time, Erin goes into hiding to live out the remainder of her life alone. She does not want to put her family through the chaos of finding her alive and then losing her a few months later. It is up to Charlie to locate her before she drifts into solitude.
The Falling Woman is a debut novel by Richard Farrell. This is a fast-paced thought-provoking novel. I look forward to more works from this author in the future.
“Anything that does not bring you alive is too small for you.” ~ David Whyte
Charlie Radford is a National Transportation Safety Board investigator who is assigned to his first large job – a devastating airliner crash over Kansas. He wants to do this important job correctly and is assigned as the lead of the survival factors working group.
From the beginning of the huge overall investigation there is a rumor of a survivor, a woman that supposedly fell from the exploding plane miles in the air and lived.
Charlie, along with everyone else from the NTSB, doesn’t believe the story even though there are a very few recorded instances of other survivors of similar accidents from the past.
This was a difficult book for me to get interested in at the beginning. It was a bit more lyrical than I expected. I dove into the book expecting excitement and instead got more of a contemplation on the meaning of life.
But my opinion changed fairly quickly because this book is written with expertise and sensitivity. I ended up enjoying Charlie’s soul searching and the story of his search for the truth. There is quite a bit in the story about the inner workings of a large disaster investigation such as this, too, and I found that interesting. I never really considered just how devastating working one of these disasters could be on the people investigating the causes plus identifying the remains.
I highly recommend this story and hope to take some of the underlying message to heart.
I received this book from Algonquin Books through Net Galley and Edelweiss in the hopes that I would read it and leave an unbiased review.
Erin Geraghty is a woman falling in more ways than one. In Richard Farrell’s debut novel, The Falling Woman, Erin had a successful career, children she loved, and a husband she tolerated until she fell ill with pancreatic cancer and then literally fell from the sky.
If Erin is the true main character of the book—the pilot, if you will, then Charlie Radford is the co-pilot. Charlie is a NTSB investigator who has been tasked with determining if the rumor of a survivor of an aviation disaster is true, and if so, where is she. Erin and Charlie share the role of narrator. Readers are given a great deal of their backstories, and their once parallel stories eventually converge.
As Charlie hunts for the survivor, readers learn of his passion for flying, his troubled childhood and fear of being a parent, and his subsequent avoidance of his wife. He loves her, but he doesn’t think he wants children. Meanwhile, Erin catches a lift to a cabin hideaway from a former lover. If her adultery isn’t bad enough, Erin decides to put her family out of their misery and disappear. She’s only got weeks/months to live, and if she resurfaces after the crash, not only will her family have to endure her slow decline to death, but she will be hounded by officials and journalists. She will have to peace, no privacy, and no ability to live as she wants for the little time she has left.
Whether you can accept Erin’s reasoning or not, The Falling Woman is a thought-provoking novel that ponders the idea of an individual’s right to privacy and their responsibility to loved ones versus their personal desires. I truly appreciated how Erin influenced Charlie, not just in terms of his professional responsibilities, but also regarding his personal passions and his marital relationship. From the shocking and surreal first chapter to the end, The Falling Woman is an intriguing read.