Stretch, 29

Stretch, 29
Damian Lanigan

An outstanding début novel – an original and engaging black comedy about an angst-ridden twenty-something Londoner whose main achievement in life seems to be that he can prove that he’s a loser.‘If I had a business card there’s only one thing it could say on it: Frank Stretch – less successful than my friends’Now, you may think you’re less successful than your friends, and you may well be right. The difference between you and Frank, however, is that he has a system that proves it. Everyone he knows or meets is given a ‘life score’ – marks out of ten for the ten ‘important’ areas of life: money, love, sex, work, car etc.His best friend Tom scores an impressive 73, his flatmate Henry 59. Even his oily and more-than-likely criminal boss Bart scores a hefty 68. But Frank – with his going-nowhere job managing one of Bart’s yuppie bars, his rusting 1977 Cavalier and the fact that he hasn’t pulled for months – weighs in with a paltry 29.Frank finally decides that things must change. But with Frank’s luck, there’s every chance that things will get a lot worse before they get better…

STRETCH, 29

Damian Lanigan

COPYRIGHT (#ulink_643179c5-168b-5bce-bb99-1f219f6f3d08)

This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.

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Copyright © Damian Lanigan 2000

Damian Lanigan asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

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Source ISBN: 9780006514282

Ebook Edition © FEBRUARY 2017 ISBN: 9780008245924

Version: 2017-02-16

DEDICATION (#ulink_6a892d4b-525e-58aa-81a7-79417c7c203e)

For Matthew Batstone

CONTENTS

Cover (#u09cc21f7-9b7b-5e8c-bfac-c8c32c021165)

Title Page (#u90ffea19-ea10-50e4-8f04-0d42e4979330)

Copyright (#ulink_5a59a218-1100-53b6-8123-adc95b0bfe39)

Dedication (#ulink_f6add6ae-cc03-5033-a590-306a17a3e4d1)

Downshift (#ulink_417b99ed-8fc2-5649-a660-c8319079e862)

Two hundred quid (#ulink_429290d9-17e1-5ede-97a4-cdbb985ffc3d)

£14,273 (#ulink_b7e8157a-7e12-57fe-80bf-07257611364d)

Three hundred grand (#ulink_58d4c675-c49f-5ac6-9823-989d2ff1ce3b)

Seventy-three thou (#ulink_23836a72-026a-5bad-97de-b1bf05ed8209)

£240 pm (#ulink_47de1866-550d-5734-ab30-bc30d2f178ea)

Twelve hundred quid (#ulink_5bfd63ab-09af-5ea6-bcc6-80e1d104fefe)

£2.91 (#ulink_bfdf9901-08af-5961-afca-75266c3db217)

Loose change (#litres_trial_promo)

Hundreds of pounds (#litres_trial_promo)

Crisp notes (#litres_trial_promo)

Five quid (#litres_trial_promo)

£200,000 a year (#litres_trial_promo)

Thirty a bottle (#litres_trial_promo)

Sixer in coin (#litres_trial_promo)

The nine hundred mark (#litres_trial_promo)

Spending limit (#litres_trial_promo)

£15,525 (#litres_trial_promo)

Forty-eight pounds sterling and nought new pence (#litres_trial_promo)

£45 (#litres_trial_promo)

£875,000 (#litres_trial_promo)

Over eighty pounds (#litres_trial_promo)

Nearly seventy (#litres_trial_promo)

Money (#litres_trial_promo)

Seven hundred left (#litres_trial_promo)