Liz Johnston’s debut novel, The Fall-Down Effect is giving space to conversations happening in resource towns during the age of climate anxiety. Pulling from her own history in Revelstoke, Johnston holds the complexities of sustainable forestry practices, conservation efforts and growing wildfire impacts all in the narrative of one Interior B.C. family over the span of 30 years.
Published by Book*hug Press and officially released Tuesday, April 21, The Fall-Down Effect follows Fern, her environmental activist mother Lynn, tree-hugger father Tom, responsible sister Sylvia and budding artist brother River as the family grapples with living in a small Pacific Northwest logging town. Years later, a raging wildfire forces the family back together at the home they grew up in while a history of estrangement, ecoterrorism and family obligations comes to a head.
“It’s a book that has its genesis in climate grief and nostalgia. But it does have hope in it, even if it’s maybe a difficult kind of hope,” Johnston told Revelstoke Mountaineer following her book launch event at Flying Books in her current home city of Toronto, Ontario.
Johnston grew up in Revelstoke after her family moved when she was three years old. She remembers the forestry industry being part of conversations with classmates whose parents worked in it, as a theme in classroom curriculums and a general presence throughout Revelstoke. All while the forests and waterways surrounding the region created an oasis she still remembers fondly.
“I love Toronto, I love the city. But I definitely wish I’d gone on more hikes when I lived in Revelstoke,” she said.
Moving away for university and eventually settling in Toronto, Johnston returned to the region for a visit in 2010 and was struck with how the landscape had changed between forestry and wildfires. From that sparked the idea for The Fall-Down Effect.
“There was an impulse to sort of preserve and remember before the whole baseline shifted from what I grew up in,” she said. “Then to write about deforestation and forest fires and the rest of what keeps shifting and changing.”
Johnston was careful not to speak specifically to one audience or another in the conversation around forest harvesting and forest preservation. Instead, she hopes readers focus more on the relationship between Fern, her family and the town that is center-stage in these conversations.
“I’m putting these different sides out there and inviting other people to think through them in their own way,” she said.
While the town in The Fall-Down Effect isn’t named as Revelstoke, Johnston doesn’t hide how she’s pulled countless elements from her time growing up in Revelstoke to build the narrative. Having a launch event specifically for her old hometown seemed like a way to give back to the area that laid the groundwork for Johnston’s debut novel.
“The book pays homage to the place, so it felt really important to do something there with the people I knew growing up,” she said.
It’s also a chance for Johnston to help support a vital piece of Canada’s literary scene; local, independent bookstores.
“I think it’s important we try to get out and buy books from places that that reciprocate our
love for books,” Johnston said, adding that local bookstores often become hubs for book clubs, public reading events, book launches and other celebrations of community literacy.
Fable Book Parlour hosts Johnston for a book launch event Wednesday, May 13 at 6 p.m., free to attend.
What did you think of this story?
Your feedback after we publish a story helps ensure we're always improving our reporting to better serve you
