Book description
A Long Way Down - Nick Hornby's hilarious bestseller about
strangers and secrets
'Can I explain why I wanted to jump off the top of a tower block?'
For disgraced TV presenter Martin Sharp the answer's pretty simple:
he has, in his own words, 'pissed his life away'. And on New Year's
Eve he's going to end it all . . . but not, as it happens, alone.
Because first single-mum Maureen, then eighteen-year-old Jess and
lastly American rock-god JJ turn up and crash Martin's private party.
They've stolen his idea - but brought their own reasons.
Yet it's hard to jump when you've got an audience queuing
impatiently behind you. A few heated words and some slices if cold
pizza later and these four strangers are suddenly allies. But is their
unlikely friendship a good enough reason to carry on living?
Shortlisted for the 2005 Whitbread Award and the Commonwealth
Writers Prize, A Long Way Down is a darkly hilarious and moving
novel by bestselling author Nick Hornby. If you like Jonathan Coe,
David Sedaris and David Nicholls, you will love this book.
'A page-turning plot and rich, funny characters with several big
laughs on every page. . . Hornby's best yet' Literary Review
'Hornby's best novel to date, impossible to put down. . . how can an
examination of four people's anguish be so enthralling?' Ruth Rendell, Guardian
'Masterful. . . some of the finest writing, and some of the most
outstanding characters I've ever had the pleasure of reading' Johnny
Depp
Nick Hornby has captivated readers and achieved widespread critical
acclaim for his comic, well-observed novels About a Boy, How
to be Good, Juliet, Naked, Slam and High
Fidelity. His three works of non-fiction, 31 Songs
(shortlisted for the National Book Critics Circle Award), Fever
Pitch (winner of the William Hill Sports Book of the Year Award)
and The Complete Polysyllabic Spree are also available from Penguin.
Nick Hornby was born in 1957, is the author of three previous novels,
High Fidelity, About a Boy and How to be Good, and two works of
non-fiction, Fever Pitch and 31 Songs, and the editor of two
anthologies, My Favourite Year and Speaking with the Angel. In 1999 he
was awarded the E. M. Forster Award by the American Academy of Arts and
Letters. In 2002 he won the W. H. Smith Award for Fiction and in 2003
was honoured with the Writers' Writer Award at the Orange Word
International Writers Festival. He lives in Highbury, North London
