Stretch, 29

An outstanding début 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 flat…