'I cannot recommend it highly enough.' Caitlin Moran

'Brims with compassion and wit.' Cathy Rentzenbrink

'Absolutely blew me away.' Jo Brand

'Brilliant . . . I love it.' Phillippa Perry

'I have never read a more powerful book about mental health.' Joanna Cannon

A journey into the heartland of psychiatry.

This book debunks myths, challenges assumptions and offers fresh insight into what it means to be mentally ill.

And what it means to be human.

This Book Will Change Your Mind About Mental Health was previously published in 2019 in hardback under the title The Heartland.

WINNER OF THE COSTA BOOK OF THE YEAR 2013 WINNER OF THE SPECSAVERS POPULAR FICTION BOOK OF THE YEAR 2014 WINNER OF THE BETTY TRASK PRIZE 2014 'I'll tell you what happened because it will be a good way to introduce my brother. His name's Simon. I think you're going to like him. I really do. But in a couple of pages he'll be dead. And he was never the same after that.' There are books you can't stop reading, which keep you up all night. There are books which let us into the hidden parts of life and make them vividly real. There are books which, because of the sheer skill with which every word is chosen, linger in your mind for days. The Shock of the Fall is all of these books. The Shock of the Fall is an extraordinary portrait of one man's descent into mental illness. It is a brave and groundbreaking novel from one of the most exciting new voices in fiction. -------------------------- 'A stunning novel. Ambitious and exquisitely realised, it's by turns shocking, harrowing and heartrending. The writing is so accomplished it's hard to believe it's a debut - it's clearly the work of a major new talent' S J WATSON 'Nathan Filer is following in the footsteps of Mark Haddon's genre-setting The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night-Time. Both funny and painful... you're going to love it' DAILY MAIL 'Bittersweet and wonderfully etched...perceptive and moving' TELEGRAPH 'A deeply moving (but also funny) first novel' Kate Saunders, THE TIMES 'A compelling story of grief, madness and loss. Filer has an ear for the dark comedy of life, and Matthew is a charismatic lead character who draws you in even as his world falls apart' OBSERVER MAGAZINE 'A tragic and comic account of living with schizophrenia. A must for fans of Matthew Quick's The Silver Linings Playbook' GQ

'Erudite, well-researched, and full of compassion... This book will change the way people understand schizophrenia, and that change is long overdue.' CHRISTIE WATSON, author of The Language of Kindness

'A truly important book. ' MAX PORTER, author of Grief is the Thing with Feathers and Lanny

'I have never read a more powerful book about mental health. it has the ability to change the way people think about mental illness.' JOANNA CANNON, author of The Trouble with Goats and Sheep

Schizophrenia: whether it's the associations it conjures or the people it brings to mind, it is a word we all have a view on. How we perceive it - and how we treat people living with it - is at the core of how we understand mental health.

But what do we really know? How much time do we spend listening? Do we truly comprehend this complex and often contradictory diagnosis?

In The Heartland Nathan Filer, mental health nurse and award winning writer, takes us on a journey into the psychiatric wards he once worked on. He also invites us to spend time with world-leading experts, and with some extraordinary people who share their own stories - true stories - about living with this strange and misunderstood condition.

The Heartland debunks myths, challenges assumptions and offers fresh insight into what it means to be mad.

And what it means to be human.