A Short History of Falling: Everything I Observed About Love Whilst Dying

As I get weaker, less a part of this world, or less a part of what I love, less a part of my family’s life, I can perceive its edges with fantastic clarity. I can lie against it, lolling my arm over the edge, running my fingers around the rim. And this is where I am.

In 2018, Joe Hammond wrote a piece for the Guardian about the 33 birthday cards he was writing for his two sons. It was shared by thousands. In A Short History of Falling, he tells the story behind that piece, about the experience of living with - and dying of - motor neurone disease (ALS).

A Short History of Falling is not a lament. It is a deeply imaginative meditation on what it feels like to confront the fact that your family will persist through time without you. It’s a book about love and about fatherhood. But it’s also an extraordinary kind of travel writing: an unblinking account of a journey into the unlighted territory and of what it means to lose your body and your connections to the world one by one.

This astonishing, luminous book will truly change the way you see the world.

Critic Reviews
"It is Hammond’s curiosity about death and his desire to report from the front line that makes this such a strangely invigorating read…his testimony deserves a place on the shelf beside When Breath Becomes Air and Late Fragments." (Cathy Rentzenbrink, author of The Last Act of Love)

"His voice is captivating, his observations are searing, and his book is a blessing. This book will inspire you even as it breaks your heart." (Kathryn Mannix, author of With the End in Mind)

"I loved this book, and read it in a day. It's surprising and uncommon and I don't think I'll ever forget it." (Sunjeev Sahota, author of The Year of the Runaways)