A moving novel about learning to find happiness in the face of uncertainty and discovering a love that transcends the boundary between life and death.
Seventeen-year-old Alex Byrd is about to have the worst day of her life, and the best. A routine blood test that will reveal her leukaemia has returned, but she also meets Jamie Orange.
Some people believe in love at first sight, and some don't. I believe in love in four days. I believe in falling.
Both teenagers have big dreams, but also big obstacles to overcome.
'Promise me you won't try to die,' I said. 'Ever.' 'Promise me you won't either,' he countered. 'It's not really something I can control.'
Eileen Merriman's three young adult novels, Pieces of You, Catch Me When You Fall, and Invisibly Breathing, were finalists in the NZ Book Awards for Children and Young Adults in 2018 and 2019, and both Pieces of You and Catch Me When You Fall are Storylines Notable Books. Her first adult novel, Moonlight Sonata, was released in July 2019, with reviewers calling it 'skilfully crafted', and a 'carefully layered and thoughtful drama, with beautifully observed and believable Kiwi characters'.
Her other awards include runner-up in the 2018 Sunday Star-Times Short Story Award, third for three consecutive years in the 2014-2016 Sunday Star-Times Short Story Awards, second in the 2015 Bath Flash Fiction Award, commended in the 2015 Bath Short Story Competition, and first place in the 2015 Graeme Lay Short Story Competition. She works full-time as a consultant haematologist at North Shore Hospital.