Then We Came to the End

Benny Shassburger wants to see if he can go the entire day without touching his mouse or keyboard.

The Office Coordinator who 'smells of witch hazel and carpet fibre' wants Tom Mota's office chair back.

Tom Mota 'built like a bulldog, stocky, with a rippling succession of necks' wants to throw his computer against the window but only if he can be sure it will break the glass and land on the street below.

Carl Garbedian 'who wears off-brand, too-tight jeans and generic tennis shoes, which to us conveyed the extent to which he's given up' wishes his wife's job wasn't so much more meaningful than his own.

Larry Novotny is praying that his office girlfriend will decide to have an abortion.

Joe Pope just wants to know if the mockups will be ready by 5 o'clock

Welcome to the world of Joshua Ferris's dazzlingly acute, brilliantly original, howlingly funny novel: the world of working life. The dotcom bubble has just burst on an advertising agency on the Magnificent Mile in downtown Chicago. Employees shuffle slowly up the steps towards the revolving doors, afraid of what awaits them inside. And soon, as colleagues start disappearing at an alarming rate it's clear that something has to give...