Falling: A Novel

Falling (2021) is the debut novel by T. J. Newman. The novel premiered at the number two spot on the New York Times bestseller list. The plot follows Bill Hoffman, a commercial airline pilot. While flying a route from California to New York, Bill is informed that his family has been kidnapped and will be killed if Bill doesn’t crash the plane. As a former flight attendant, Newman uses her knowledge of commercial airliners and pilots to create a thriller that USA Today, Esquire, and Amazon all named book of the year. Newman is currently writing the screenplay for a major motion picture adaptation from Universal Pictures.

This guide utilizes the 2021 Avid Reader Press, an imprint of Simon & Schuster, Inc Kindle e-book.

Content Warning: The source text and this guide mention suicide as well as stereotypical and biased portrayals of Middle-Eastern peoples that often flatten such people into terrorist archetypes.

Plot Summary

Bill Hoffman’s wife, Carrie, is angry with him for taking a flight to New York on the weekend their 10-year-old son, Scott, has his first little league baseball game of the season. They exchange tense words as Bill leaves the house with the assumption that he and Carrie will work things out over text messages later in the day.