Prime logo Prime members: New to Audible?
Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
Premium Plus auto-renews for $14.95/mo after 30 days. Cancel anytime.
Joy  By  cover art

Joy

By: Jonathan Lee
Narrated by: Mandy Weston, Rupert Farley
Try for $0.00

$14.95/month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy for $16.36

Buy for $16.36

Pay using card ending in
By confirming your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and Amazon's Privacy Notice. Taxes where applicable.

Publisher's summary

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'.

©2012 Jonathan Lee (P)2013 Audible Ltd

Critic reviews

“A brilliant book... Jonathan Lee is one of those rare, agile writers who can take your breath away.” (Catherine O’flynn, author of What Was Lost)
“With its supple prose, ingenious structure, wit and slow-burn sympathy, Joy is a sly miracle of a novel.” (A.D. Miller)
“Exquisitely and surprisingly written.[Joy] proves that Lee is a significant talent and that his future work should be well worth awaiting.” (Observer)

What listeners say about Joy

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    3
  • 4 Stars
    2
  • 3 Stars
    1
  • 2 Stars
    1
  • 1 Stars
    0
Performance
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    4
  • 4 Stars
    3
  • 3 Stars
    0
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    0
Story
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    3
  • 4 Stars
    2
  • 3 Stars
    1
  • 2 Stars
    1
  • 1 Stars
    0

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

Depressing

The characters are vividly developed; the writing is talented and engaging; but overall I found this book quite depressing: I guess, the author goes too deep into small-ish thoughts and motives of his people, and while it's a great skill and an overall plus, it left a very downing impression on me. I enjoyed the unconventional ending. I almost want to give it four stars, although, initially, I settled for three.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    2 out of 5 stars

So slow paced, it almost stopped

The novel opens with a slow tedious scene of revelation that becomes obvious to the audience way before the main character clicks about what is going on. The pace does not improve from that point. Essentially, the novel is an examination of the thought processes and deliberations of 5 people, each gradually revealing a piece to the puzzling question of whether Joy jumped or was pushed. Unfortunately, each of the 5 people are unlikeable, whinging characters, whose lives appear small, tedious and terribly boring. By the end of the never ending wading through all the moaning and complaining, when we might actually get the answer to the question, who cares? The narration was very good. Both narrators did indeed make their characters sound self involved and small minded.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful