'STRETCH, 29'

An outstanding debut novel -- an original and engaging black comedy about an angst-ridden twenty-something Londoner whose main achievement in life seems to be that he can prove that he's a loser. 'If I had a business card there's only one thing it could say on it: Frank Stretch -- less successful than my friends' Now, you may think you're less successful than your friends, and you may well be right. The difference between you and Frank, however, is that he has a system that proves it. Everyone he knows or meets is given a 'life score' -- marks out of ten for the ten 'important' areas of life: money, love, sex, work, car etc. His best friend Tom scores an impressive 73, his flatmate Henry 59. Even his oily and more-than-likely criminal boss Bart scores a hefty 68. But Frank -- with his going-nowhere job managing one of Bart's yuppie bars, his rusting 1977 Cavalier and the fact that he hasn't pulled for months -- weighs in with a paltry 29. Frank finally decides that things must change. But with Frank's luck, there's every chance that things will get a lot worse before they get better...