The novel describes the life long and mutually-dependent friendship between two men, beginning in Liverpool in the 60s when they are children.
Loss and loneliness in childhood lead introvert middle-class Kit Ramsay into forbidden friendship and taboo territory with Liverpool tough boy, Terry Dacosta. Violence and deprivation in Terry’s childhood, drive him to aspire to a life like Kit’s. Their early experiences in 60s and 70s Liverpool are to have far-reaching effects on their adult lives and relationships as they get sucked back into each other’s world in 90s Bournemouth.
The 'sucking' theme can be read on many levels as well as the more literal (ie sweets and cigarettes in childhood, kissing and oral sex in adolesence.) In a more symbolic sense, and as well as offering ‘succour’, Kit is a sucker for Terry’s world and anything connected with it (Terry being ‘the brother’ he lost). But in Kit’s words, “Who’s doing the sucking anyway? I thought it was me, but him, that lot, they’ve sucked me in ever since. Like sinking mud.”