Joy

Did she jump? Did she fall? Will she wake? On an ordinary Friday afternoon in the office, talented young lawyer Joy Stephens plummets forty feet onto a marble floor. In the shadow of this baffling event, the lives of those closest to her begin to collide and change in unexpected ways. There is Dennis, her disgraced husband, who finds consolation in books; her colleague Peter, whose refuge is a mix of hedonism and hard work; Barbara, Joy's prickly PA, who'd be content if only she could get away to New York; and Samir, Joy's hygiene-obsessed personal trainer, who escapes into exercise routines and other, stranger rituals. In a sparkling glass office in London's Square Mile--a place bursting with flirtations, water cooler confrontations and dangerous amounts of abject boredom--each of them is forced to question what they've witnessed, and to face past moments that have defined Joy's life, as well as their own.Jonathan Lee was born in 1981 and lives in London. His first novel, Who is Mr Satoshi?, was nominated for the Desmond Elliot Prize 2011 and shortlisted for an MJA Open Book Award 2011. The BBC's Culture Show programme recently featured him as being one of Britain's 'best new novelists.'