Defenestrate

By: Renée Branum

Narrated by: Zura Johnson

Length: 8 hrs and 16 mins

Publisher's summary

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

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 19th-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

Critic reviews

"Branum‘s prose lights up the imagination, every line a discovery and a pleasure. Beyond simple elegance or precision, she weaves sense and simile so stunningly, you have to throw your hands up and say 'damn!' Defenestrate is both a transporting story, and a poetic reflection on family myths, death and danger, creation, self preservation, and the great free-fall of life. I was constantly thrilled by the beauty and insight of her words, and, at the same time, ever on the precipice of that titular drop, the one that’s always just about to happen, the one we all know from childhood dreams." (Dina Nayeri, author of The Ungrateful Refugee and Refuge)

"Gorgeously written and imaginative, Defenestrate is a beautiful novel about the family stories we tell and how they echo on through generations. Rich and intimate, this novel will stay with me." (Annie Hartnett, author of Rabbit Cake and Little Animals)

"Renée Branum writes with exceptional wisdom and tenderness about inheritance, obsession, and the power of storytelling as a means of understanding who we are. As family secrets are revealed, Defenestrate builds to a symphonic, exhilarating end that embraces uncertainty alongside the miracle of surviving the greatest of falls." (Sanaë Lemoine, author of The Margot Affair)

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.

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.

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?