FALLING is the first collection of short stories by Erik Van Achter. It was during his stay at Brown University that Erik first started writing various fictions dealing with the life and the way of living Ivy League Students. Most characters exist in real life, some are even the writer’s friends but fiction took hold of them casting a net they rarely escape from. Their bright lives, where the sky supposedly is the limit, is defied by the basic laws of (human) gravity. Some survive the fall, others don’t. Fate, coincidence and destiny rule their world. Being well versed in short story theory, Erik Van Achter has experimented with genre’s many possibilities. What has interested him most is piecing together small fragments, hoping a story might arise and lead a real life and an afterlife. The mythical world of Ivy League is just a setting. In fact the human condition controlled by uncontrollable events is at the center of the tales. Sometimes characters literally fall but stay alive, sometimes characters fall from grace, looking for redemption and sadly die.