A long way down

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 rockgod 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?

A page-turning plot and rich, funny characters with several big laughs on every page Hornby’s best yet’
– Literary Review