Falling Animals: A BBC 2 Between the Covers Book Club Pick

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The chapters are short and we only get a brief glimpse of most characters, but they are so well crafted, fully rounded people, that I was left wanting some of their individual stories to be fleshed out into full novels.

They work so hard, bringing authors in to talk, getting themselves into schools, running Story Times, all kinds of events, as well of course as extremely popular book groups. On an isolated beach set against a lonely, windswept coastline, a pale figure sits serenely against a sand dune staring out to sea.Within only a few paragraphs, Armstrong skilfully gives us a sense of each new person and their backstory, so that each new chapter feels fresh, engaging and allows us to observe from a different angle. The stunning cover on Falling Animals will surely have readers picking this up off the shelves, but dive into this story, and you'll not be disappointed. Frank, die dicht bij het lijk kwam maar niets gezien heeft, vertelt over het opruimen van de kadavers van zeehonden op het strand. I have previously read Armstrong’s collection of short stories, How to Gut a Fish, and while I didn’t particularly get on with those, this novel was an entirely different experience for me.

I don't think my explanation is helping much to sell the book which is a shame because it is beautiful, poetic, sad, lyrical and utterly absorbing. Each of their narratives are satisfyingly rounded out with the narrators’ own backstories: some are villagers born and bred like Oona, others are blow-ins like Matias who left his Bogota home aged sixteen. Through vignettes, we get to know the people in the village, and around the world, that came into contact with whoever this man was.

The disquieting story of an unidentified man as told by those who crossed paths with him on the last day of his life, Sheila Armstrong’s debut novel is haunting, lyrical and darkly suspenseful.

At its heart it has an unexplained death, a man found at the edge of a beach in a small coastal town in North West Ireland and the quest to find out who he was, but it is so much more than that. Your doctor says that the final name etched on the plaque is not one of us, that he was not lost at sea.

It kept me going when I felt I was losing my grip on the story, pulled me back in at the end, and then it would not let go. I would have preferred some sort of rounding out at the end, but it finished as it began with many unknowns. Very different; I liked the different chapters focussing on the individuals and how they may, or may not, be linked to the deceased. I had just added this one to my wishlist on the basis of another review, so you’ve now firmly cemented its place there and pushed it up my priority list! A series of beautifully written short stories that capture the magic of nature and the essence of individuality that the author skilfully melds together in a cleverly told seamless whole.