WHEN THE WORLD TIPS OVER

A mysterious stranger is the key to unraveling decades-old family secrets.

Twelve years ago, winemaker Theo Fall drove away from Paradise Springs, California, leaving behind his pregnant wife and two young sons. Now, the three Fall children carry scars from their father’s abrupt disappearance. Twelve-year-old Dizzy is perpetually afraid of losing people. Her older brothers have their own struggles: 17-year-old Miles is hiding a fathomless chasm of sadness beneath his perfect facade, and 19-year-old violinist Wynton is brilliant but broken, chasing the sound of his father’s trumpet at the bottom of a bottle. But the arrival of rainbow-haired Cassidy at the precise moment each sibling is at a pivotal crossroads sets everything in motion for the members of the Fall family to discover the truth behind the fraternal curse that seems destined to destroy them. Miles and Dizzy embark on a wild pilgrimage, aided and abetted by Sandro, a dog who communicates telepathically, and Felix, a dreamy bisexual sous chef. Composed of multiple interwoven timelines, the story is part folktale and part epistolary novel. It's also 100% Nelson’s signature fabulism and evocative, lyrical prose, which rewards those who stick around through the slow start and occasionally overwrought language. Readers will be satisfied by the emotional collision of the various plotlines and the richly drawn main and secondary characters. Main characters read white.

A Technicolor fever dream offering readers a sensory feast.