As we follow their lives from the seventies into the new century -- from punk to techno, from speed to Es -- we can see each of them trying to struggle out from under the weight of the conditioning of class and culture, peer pressure and their parents' hopes that maybe their sons will do better than they did. What binds the four of them is the friendship formed by the scheme, their school, and their ambition to escape from both; their loyalty fused in street morality: back up your mates, don't hit women, and, most important, never squeal -- on anyone.

Rich in scale and ambition, Glue has all Irvine Welsh's usual pace and vigor, crackling dialogue, scabrous set-pieces and black, clack humor, but it is also a grown-up book about growing up -- about the way we live out lives, and what happens to us when things become unstuck.