From Where I Fell – Susan Johnson

Have you ever accidentally sent an email to the wrong address? Surely it’s happened to us all at one time or another. Most of us receive an automatic reply indicating that the misspelled address doesn’t exist… but what if our missive actually landed in a stranger’s inbox? What if they replied?

That’s the premise of Susan Johnson’s modern twist on the epistolary novel, From Where I Fell (based on her real-life experience of the same!). The lovely team at Allen & Unwin were kind enough to send me a copy for review.

Pamela’s emotional email to her ex-husband is received instead by Chrisanthi, a woman on the other side of the world. Chrisanthi takes the time to respond, to let Pamela know her message has gone awry, and from there a friendship develops.

There’s something deliciously voyeuristic about reading this exchange, like looking at screenshots of a friend’s messages over drinks, though to this millennial mind the instant intimacy between the women (in their 50s and 60s) seems a little strange.

Still, I was impressed by the way Johnson managed to create and combine two strong and unique voices – Pamela’s heart-on-the-sleeve self-indulgent fretting, and Chris’s no-bullshit reasoning behind a stiff-upper-lip. From Where I Fell would make for a fantastic dual-narrator audiobook!

Buy From Where I Fell on Booktopia here. (affiliate link)