Some Rain Must Fall: And Other Stories

Michel Faber

Aug 2001 · HarperCollins

About this ebook

Michel Faber's short stories are markedly diverse-the voice of each is so distinct that the book reads like an anthology of different writers. But Faber's radically inventive style fastens all fifteen stories into a compelling collection deserving of the high praise it garnered in the United Kingdom. One surreal story, "Fish," projects a futuristic world populated with fish swimming in the air. As sharks hover in abandoned corners and human zealots of the Church of the Armageddon loose their fanaticism on the innocent, it's a mother's full-time job to protect her young daughter. The title story, "Some Rain Must Fall," tells of a substitute schoolteacher called on in a crisis, and as she encourages her pupils to express their feelings, we learn the source of the class's trouble: a devastating act that resonates with contemporary America. As Garth Morris wrote in the Mail on Sunday (London), "these are well-crafted pieces of quiet forlorn intensity in a very real world."

About the author

Michel Faber was born in The Hague, Netherlands on April 13, 1960. He was educated at the University of Melbourne. His books include The Crimson Petal and the White, The Fahrenheit Twins, Under the Skin, The Apple, and The Book of Strange New Things. He is also the author of two novellas, The Hundred and Ninety-Nine Steps and The Courage Consort. He won several short-story awards, including the Neil Gunn, Ian St James and Macallan. He made The New York Times Best Seller List with his title The Book of Strange New Things. This title also made the shortlist for the Arthur C Clarke Award for science-fiction in 2015.