By the author of High Fidelity, About a Boy and How to Be Good. Purchased on a whim from the Quality Paperback Book Club.

A Long Way Down tells the story of four Londoners who meet on a rooftop on New Year's Eve, each intending to leap to their deaths. Instead of making the jump, the four would-be leapers -- an American drummer from a failed rock band, a fifty-something morning television personality, a multiply pierced teenager and an elderly woman -- form a gang of sorts, distracting themselves from their own misery by focusing on a series of projects related to the lives of the others. This was an engaging enough novel, but nowhere near as clever as Hornby's previous novels (High Fidelity, About a Boy and How to Be Good). Recommended as a reasonable summer beach/cottage read.

RELEASE NOTES:

I'll be leaving this book (encased in a weatherproof "Free Book" bag) on a bench somewhere in Queen's Park, as I walk through there about 2 pm today. Best wishes and happy reading to whomever picks it up.