Defenestrate

By: Renée Branum

Narrated by: Zura Johnson

Bloomsbury presents Defenestrate by Renée Branum, read by Zura Johnson.

A NEW YORKER BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR
A NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW EDITORS' CHOICE

An exuberant, wildly inventive debut about a young woman fascinated by her ancestors' legendary "falling curse" and trying to keep her own family from falling apart.

Marta and her twin brother Nick have always been haunted and fascinated by an ancestral legend that holds that members of their family are doomed to various types of falls. And when their own family collapses in the wake of a revelation and a resulting devastating fight with their Catholic mother, the twins move to Prague, the city in which their “falling curse” began. There, Marta and Nick try to forge a new life for themselves. But their ties to the past and each other prove difficult to disentangle, and when they ultimately return to their midwestern home and Nick falls from a balcony himself, Marta is forced to confront the truths they've hidden from each other and themselves.

Ingeniously and unforgettably narrated by Marta as she reflects on all the ways there are to fall—from defenestration in nineteenth century Prague to the pratfalls of her childhood idol Buster Keaton, from falling in love to falling midflight from an airplane—Defenestrate is a deeply original, gorgeous novel about the power of stories and the strange, malleable bonds that hold families together.©2022 Renée Branum (P)2022 Bloomsbury Publishing Plc

Worth the long fall down… seriously

Give the book your time and you will receive stories to enjoy and marvel, but also work through a little breaking of bone, and heart.

I will read this again!

This was a story full of beautiful metaphors, beautifully written; also wonderfully read and performed. Simultaneously brutal, and tender, and vulnerable. Highly recommend!

Fall, in love.

I don’t know that I would have found this book or picked it out on my own. But I decided to give it a try after a recommendation and have zero regrets. A beautiful story that is equal parts hope and despair, falling and lifting up. Zura Johnson lifts this story off the page so exquisitely. Her tone and focus of feeling allowing you to envision each tale told by the narrator as you become deeply invested in the survival of the stories she weaves.

Quit about halfway in

This never grabbed me. I gave it several hours, but never was anxious to hear more. So I cut my losses. Maybe just not for me?