Ben and Stuart are old friends. Having known one another since school, they've grown up together and remained friends into adulthood. But now into their thirties, their lives have taken very different paths, and they're now very different people, leading very different lives, following different careers. Ben is a conformist: office job, moderately successful, and teetering on the brink of a premature midlife crisis. Stuart is a rebellious non-conformist, a lifelong student and a writer who sneers at the humdrum and derides corporate sell-outs.

At the heart of this radical novel that dismantles the very notion of 'the novel' lies a thought-provoking work that challenges notions of authorship and the distinctions that separate theory, criticism, fiction and memoir, there lies a touching tale of midlife anxiety in the postmodern age of late capitalism and information overload.