A Long Way Down by British author Nick Hornby, is a dark comedy, playing off the themes of suicide, angst, depression and promiscuity. The story is written in the first-person narrative from the points of view of the four main characters: -- Martin Sharp - The former host of a top rated morning show, Martin made the mistake of sleeping with a girl who was 15 years and 250 days old, (a 115 day gap of legality). He served time in prison for statutory rape, but upon his release, discovered that his career was ruined and his marriage was over. -- Maureen - A pious, sheltered middle-aged Catholic woman whose life revolves around caring for her vegetative son Matty. She has led the past 19 years of her life in relative seclusion, going only to church and spending the majority of her time pretending like Matty is a healthy child by buying him posters, video games and cassette tapes. -- Jess Crichton - A tactless, unpredictable, drug-abusing teenager who carries around the emotional baggage of family issues and her own self-destructive personality. She originally persuades the group to "postpone" their suicidal intentions to help her find and confront her ex-boyfriend Chas, who slept with her then dumped her. -- And JJ - An American whose sole purpose for being in London is a relationship with his British girlfriend Lizzie. He was in a band, Big Yellow, who until recently had been performing across the UK. The band broke up and Lizzie dumped him, so JJ has now found himself delivering pizzas via moped. These four strangers happen to meet on the roof of a high building called Topper's House in London on New Year's Eve, each with the intent of committing suicide. Their plans for death in solitude, however, are ruined when they meet. The novel recounts their misadventures as they decide to come down from the roof alive - however temporarily that may be. I just loved it!!! I would also recommend to fans os Long Way Down, read the best-selling novel--The Fates by Tino Georgiou--of course, that is if you haven't yet.