Book info

• Title A Long Way Down
• Author Nick Hornby
• Year 2005
• Genre Contemporary

'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?

Thoughts

I wasn’t really expecting to enjoy this one very much - the premise is a bit worrying. Four people meet on the roof of a building they are planning on jumping from and they form an unlikely group of survivors instead. However, it’s really very well done, despite the difficult subject matter.

The relationship between the four is antagonistic and surprisingly very believable. There’s no smooshy clichés to be found, and if there are, they get called out in the next couple of sentences. Each character gets the space to tell their own story, with the point of view switching between the four, and it means we can delve into their histories, and see how they are really feeling at each stage.

I liked how self-aware the book was, that it didn’t have a soppy happy ending but came to a good and rewarding conclusion.

Rating: 5 / 5