Product Description

‘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 of cold pizza later and these four strangers are suddenly allies. But is their unlikely friendship a good enough reason to carry on living?

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #21710 in Books
• Published on: 2006-04-06
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 272 pages

About the Author
Nick Hornby is the bestselling author of High Fidelity, About a Boy and How to be Good, as well as two works of non-fiction, Fever Pitch and 31 Songs, and the editor of Speaking with the Angel. In 1999 he was awarded the E. M. Forster Award. 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.

Customer Reviews

Very Clever
This is a very bold book, but Hornby pulls it off with minimalist simplicity and drollness. The tale, about suicide and hopelessness, that unfolds is a curious and impulsive one. An odd quartet of suicidals becomes a kind of surrogate family; each individual makes a move at creating a bearable future, while constantly getting on each other's nerves. Hornby retains a lovely comic undertone. Life is worth living

Not his best effort
A Long Way Down really does start with an intriguing premise. 4 completely unrelated strangers meet on top of Toppers Towers, a well known suicide spot in North London. The four characters, Martin, Maureen, Jess & JJ come from varying backgrounds with varying amounts of angst in their lives.

At first glance some problems seem a lot worse than others, Maureen is deeply depressed and lonely, which has been brought about by the continued care of her son, who can no more identify who she is or where he is than I can jump over a house. Martin has disgraced himself and lost his lucrative TV job by sleeping with a 15 year old girl, Jess is distraught over the break up of a relationship and JJ sees his life spiralling out of control with the loss of his band, and his girl.

Now you might think that the pressures of full time care of a son who can't appreciate it out rank the troubles of a young girl on her first break up but what Nick Hornby quite skilfully does here is to create an even ground, not judging peoples problems or making light of them. What he is essentially saying is that people deal with problems in their own way, and that even the smallest problem can seem like the end of the world in the wrong hands.

Our characters grow through their relationship with one and other, discussing each others problems and short comings. We begin to discover that there is more to Jess's neurosis than typical "teen angst" and where you swing from understand Martin's behaviours (not his sleeping with a 15 year old...), to thinking he is frankly a berk who has no right to his family if he won't put the work into it. This juxtaposition is at times well handled, but overall feels a little heavy handed and when it comes to it, this is my major problem with the whole book.

The idea is a good one, 4 people come together at their lowest ebb and look to understand each other as well as themselves, but it feels all a little contrived. As if you saw an ad in the paper saying suicide support group, meet on Toppers Towers Monday at Midnight. Bring tea...

It is at times funny, but not laugh out loud funny. It is a times sad, but not cry your eyes out sad. It is at times uplifting, but not hug the nearest person to you uplifting. It is an easy read and will waste a few hours better than most but it isn't an inspired piece of work, and certainly not one of his best.

Another brilliant, thought-provoking Nick Hornby novel
Thought provoking novel about four strangers who find themselves on the roof of a block of flats on New Years Eve. Rather than jumping from this notorious suicide spot, they all come down and form a sort of informal self-help group as they try to rebuild their lives. The four - a disgraced TV presenter, tragically sad middle-aged single mother who has devoted her life to her disabled son, failed rock star and fowl-mouthed teen - have little in common but form an unspoken bond.

Hornby's novel is excellent in that it is moving at times and offers some hope without lapsing into sentimentality - everything is not resolved at the end. Bringing up plenty of other thought provoking issues as it proceeds, it is a real page-turner. The flow is aided by its format with each of the four telling the story in turn for a few pages at a time. Very effective as is the whole story. A superb novel.