Meet Roger, a divorced, middle-aged "aisles associate", condemned to restocking realms of twenty-lb. bond paper for the rest of his life. And then there's Bethany, who's at the end of her Goth phase, and young enough to be looking at fifty more years sorting pens. Through a complex layering of narratives, The gum thief, highlights the comedy, loneliness and strange comforts of contemporary life.