A Long Way Down

I probably shouldn't be reading a book about suicide at time like this. After all, not so long ago I was struggling with the pangs of a depression where the idea of suicide was an obsession. But the subject of "A Long Way Down" was irrelevant when I bought it. It was Nick Hornby's lastest novel, shortlisted for the 2005 Whitbread Book Award. I had read Hornby's "How to be Good" and "High Fidelity" and I was sure I was in for a good read. He has a remarkable gift for thinking up thoroughly believable and coherent characters going through the kind of bad moments most readers can relate to.

This particular book is about four completely different people who don't know each other and happen to choose the same spot to commit suicide on New Year's Eve. They end up saving each other's lives on that particular night and in the long run. It's a tremendously sad and insightful book that doesn't feel that "heavy" thanks to the author's abundant use of humour (a dark, meaningful and poignant humour, which in real life so often goes hand in hand with an extreme situation).

I highly recommend it.

Synopsis

Narrated in turns by a dowdy, middle-aged woman, a half-crazed adolescent, a disgraced breakfast TV presenter and an American rock star cum pizza delivery boy, A Long Way Down is the story of the Toppers House Four, aka Maureen, Jess, Martin and JJ. A low-rent crowd with absolutely nothing in common - save where they end up that New Year's Eve night. And what they do next, of course. Funny, sad, and wonderfully humane, Nick Hornby's new novel asks some of the big questions: about life and death, strangers and friendship, love and pain, and whether a slice of pizza can really see you through a long, dark night of the soul.

Reviews

Guardian, Times, Observer, Telegraph.