Short Synopsis
In this piercing memoir, a father maps the contours of his grief and explores how his family navigates the unthinkable loss of eight-year-old Owen.

Full Synopsis
On a day like any other, on a rafting trip down Utah's Green River, Stéphane Gerson's eight-year-old son, Owen, drowned in a spot known as Disaster Falls. That same night, as darkness fell, Stéphane huddled in a tent with his wife, Alison, and their older son, Julian, trying to understand what seemed inconceivable. "It's just the three of us now," Alison said over the sounds of a light rain and, nearby, the rushing river. "We cannot do it alone. We have to stick together."

Disaster Falls chronicles the aftermath of that day and their shared determination to stay true to Alison's resolution. Gerson captures the different ways of grieving that threatened to isolate each of them in their post-Owen worlds and then, with beautiful specificity, shows how he and Alison preserved and reconfigured their marriage from within. Blending family history (including the "good death" of his father, which offers a very different perspective on mortality) and the natural history of the river, he provides an expansive, unflinching meditation on loss, our responsibilities toward our children, and the stories we tell ourselves in the wake of traumatic events.

"[Gerson] is adept at conveying himself as a character struggling with grief, plunging the reader into the intimate eddies of emotion . . . Piercing, precise and graceful." ---New York Times

"Keenly observed and deeply felt, this book is not only a powerful reflection on grief and loss, but also an intimately textured history of fathers and sons." ---Kirkus

“This diamond-sharp book is both meticulous and breathtaking." ---Library Journal Starred Review

“Stéphane Gerson's Disaster Falls is as deep and necessary and haunting as grief itself. . . . This is a gorgeously written book that will stand the test of time.” ---Elizabeth Lesser, author of Broken Open

"Disaster Falls is a father’s grief-stricken book, a work of expiation, homage, and remembrance, and it moved me, as it will move many others, because it is authentic, resonant and true, deeply thoughtful, utterly real." ---Edward Hirsch, author of Gabriel: A Poem

Library Journal Review