Kristin Kenway Books

Drifting through his early twenties, Joe Lloyd is barely holding down his job as a barman, struggling to find the energy to get out of bed in the mornings. London depresses him, with its hordes of Polo-shirted casuals and vacuous club-kids, its broken promises of excitement and glamour. But Joe keeps himself open to experience, willing the city to impress him. Whether he is stealing a chair from a brothel, losing control in a fairground rifle-range or crashing into the strange characters London throws at him, he is always trying to fill in the gaps in his own life, constantly chasing sensation. It isn't until he gets to know Lou that Joe realises how numb he has become. Beautiful, bright and frighteningly up front, Lou is the kind of girl who'll demand phone-sex, the kind of girl who has the power to disrupt Joe's carefully disordered lifestyle ... Fuelled by a restless wit and energy, Precious Thing is a sexually charged portrayal of love, loss and London in the 21st century.

I felt like I'd just joined some club Joel had founded when I was still five foot. I think back on it, when I'm walking along a street on a busy Saturday, into shops selling blank tapes and earbuds and washing machines; I watch cars go by and I watch people walk by, and all I can think of is how amazed I am that there isn't complete chaos the entire time. I keep waiting for everyone going about their daily business to just stop dead and say a collective 'Who are we kidding?' and start having sex there and then. And not stop until it was time to eat. And then start again. What had been invented in order to stop this chaos happening in the supermarket every day?"