A multi generational tale of a family, across continents, through love stories within love stories. There are quests, mysteries, broken hearts and singing ones. There are fathers lost and fathers found, wine, food and many firsts. First kisses, first loves, first meetings and first heartbreaks.

There is the past, the present and wishes for the future. Each character tells their tale how they experience it, not knowing that others in this novel and parts of their lives are experiencing the same events, feelings or miraculous reveals in entirely different ways, not far away.

There are cowboy hats, purple RV’s, a dog that understands its humans and humans that understand him. Strangers become loved ones, and loved ones become strangers. Violins sing and trumpets soar as music runs through veins like wine runs through the generations.

An angel saves a life, and then the life of another – someone met in a field years before who asked her to marry him.

When tragedy strikes, siblings, friends and family members look at their lives, their pasts and possible futures and finally, finally find each other’s hearts and truths and reasons to come together.

This miraculous story is layer upon layer of story, through letters written and never posted, and emails typed and never sent. Another story is from a little girl growing up with her free spirit of a mother in an RV called Sadie Grace with the money left by another. Another of a boy becoming a man without his father and trying to find where he fits in the world.

One brother loves to play the violin, but messes up everything else in his life. His disdain for his younger brother, deemed perfect in every way by all who have ever met him – has built a wedge a mile wide between them. When they realise what they thought was the truth is completely false, they must rethink their entire lives – this is a painful journey for both and exquisitely written by this extremely talented author.

But hurt and loss and love goes back generation by generation, all revealed between the pages, piece by piece by piece, completing a fractured mess of a jigsaw into a family that is eventually put back together by realisation, love and truths long lost.

Wow. Want a novel to get completely lost for days inside? Fall into the wonder of When The World Tips Over.

Author – Jandy Nelson

Age – 15+

Read an Excerpt here

(2024, Walker Books Aust, Story within story, Adventure, Animals, Betrayal, Courage, Family, Friendship, Ghost, Grief, LGBTQ+, Growing up, Love, Music, Mystery, Wine, Soufflé, Baking, Violin, Trumpet, Siblings, Brothers, Loss, RV, Life on the road, Secrets, Mental Illness, Discovery)