In his eagerly awaited fourth novel, New York Times bestselling author Nick Hornby mines the hearts and psyches of four lost souls who connect just when they ve reached the end of the line Meet Martin, JJ, Jess, and Maureen Four people who come together on New Year s Eve a former TV talk show host, a musician, a teenage girl, and a mother Three are British, one is AmerIn his eagerly awaited fourth novel, New York Times bestselling author Nick Hornby mines the hearts and psyches of four lost souls who connect just when they ve reached the end of the line Meet Martin, JJ, Jess, and Maureen Four people who come together on New Year s Eve a former TV talk show host, a musician, a teenage girl, and a mother Three are British, one is American They encounter one another on the roof of Topper s House, a London destination famous as the last stop for those ready to end their lives In four distinct and riveting first person voices, Nick Hornby tells a story of four individuals confronting the limits of choice, circumstance, and their own mortality This is a tale of connections made and missed, punishing regrets, and the grace of second chances Intense, hilarious, provocative, and moving, A Long Way Down is a novel about suicide that is, surprisingly, full of life What s your jumping off point MaureenWhy is it the biggest sin of all All your life you re told that you ll be going to this marvelous place when you pass on And the one thing you can do to get you there a bit quicker is something that stops you getting there at all Oh, I can see that it s a kind of queue jumping But if someone jumps the queue at the post office, people tut Or sometimes they say Excuse me, I was here first They don t say You will be consumed by hellfire for all eternity That would be a bit strong MartinI d spent the previous couple of months looking up suicides on the Internet, just out of curiosity And nearly every single time, the coroner says the same thing He took his own life while the balance of his mind was disturbed And then you read the story about the poor bastard His wife was sleeping with his best friend, he d lost his job, his daughter had been killed in a road accident some months before Hello, Mr Coroner I m sorry, but there s no disturbed mental balance here, my friend I d say he got it just right JessI was at a party downstairs It was a shit party, full of all these ancient crusties sitting on the floor drinking cider and smoking huge spliffs and listening to weirdo space out reggae At midnight, one of them clapped sarcastically, and a couple of others laughed, and that was it Happy New Year to you, too You could have turned up to that party as the happiest person in London, and you d still have wanted to jump off the roof by five past twelve And I wasn t the happiest person in London anyway Obviously JJNew Year s Eve was a night for sentimental losers It was my own stupid fault Of course there d be a low rent crowd up there I should have picked a classier date like March 28, when Virginia Woolf took her walk into the river, or November 25 Nick Drake If anybody had been on the roof on either of those nights, the chances are they would have been like minded souls, rather than hopeless f ck ups who had somehow persuaded themselves that the end of a calendar year is in any way significant.

• Title: A Long Way Down
• Author: Nick Hornby
• ISBN: 9781594481932
• Page: 157
• Format: Hardcover