Jonathan Lee's highly accomplished second novel might be called Joy, but real happiness is lacking from the lives of its characters. Following the high-flying young lawyer Joy Stephens on what she intends to be the last day of her life, Lee alternates between precise descriptions of her everyday routine and first-person accounts after the event from significant people in her life. These include her pedantic older academic husband Dennis, her bitter PA Barbara and her laddish but vulnerable colleague Peter, all of whom are concealing their own secrets.

The closest comparison that can be made is with Joshua Ferris's Then We Came to the End, which shares a similarly bravura command of narrative voice and a jaded look at the dehumanising world of contemporary office life. However, unlike Ferris, Lee exudes sympathy for all of his characters, no matter how superficially distasteful or selfish they are. Dennis, who would be a caricature in most other books, is given a surprising amount of dignity and pathos. Exquisitely and surprisingly written  at one point a dildo is described as "the oversized valve on an inflatable doll"  it proves that Lee is a significant talent and that his future work should be well worth awaiting.