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About Falling
into the Sun
After she stumbles upon his suicide, Kate Nardek sees her dead
neighbor everywhere—hanging from the ceiling fan, in her rearview
mirror—dark holes where his eyes should be. Three days after
Michael’s suicide, Kate envisions her own thirteen-year-old son,
Josh, hanging from a garage rafter. She realizes the kind of despair
that led Michael to kill himself fuels Josh’s increasingly violent
blowups. She seeks psychological help for her son, a decision that
dramatically changes the course of both their lives. In her quest to
vanquish Josh’s demons, Kate must face down her own, forcing her to
rethink her beliefs about mental illness, good and evil, death and,
finally, her own self-worth.
Michael’s journey parallels
Kate’s as his soul flies into the center of creation. There, he
discovers someone—or something—has noted every twist of his life
since sperm struck seed. This being’s perfect knowledge generates
the healing salve of perfect compassion. If Michael will confront
the truth about key people and violent episodes from his recent
life, he too can learn compassion. It’s a painful exercise he can
refuse. But other journeys to the center have taught him that
willful ignorance is like the river Lethe; it leads to only one
place. He chooses knowledge.
Gripping, poetic and powerfully uplifting, Falling into the Sun
explores spiritual truths of Hindu, Native American and Judeo-Christian
traditions as it tenderly grapples with the generational legacy of
alcoholism and mental illness.
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