"A Long Way Down" by Nick Hornby is a tragicomic tale of 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.