Douglas Coupland

On the eve of the next Space Shuttle mission, a divided family comes together!Warm, witty and wise, 'All Families Are Psychotic' is Coupland at the very top of his form. In a cheap motel an hour from Cape Canaveral, Janet Drummond takes her medication, and does a rapid tally of the whereabouts of her children. Wade has spent the night in jail, suicidal Bryan is due to arrive at any moment with his vowel-free girlfriend, Shw, and then there is Sarah, 'a bolt of lightning frozen in midflash' -- here in Orlando to be the star of Friday's shuttle mission. With Janet's ex-husband and his trophy wife also in town, Janet spends a moment contemplating her family, and where it all went wrong. Or did it?

Dielo súčasného kanadského autora, ktoré kritika vyzdvihuje ako jeden z najlepších románov 21. storočia, je čítanie plné nečakaných prekvapení. Liz Dunnová, podobne ako Eleanor Rigby z rovnomennej piesne Beatles, patrí k ľuďom, ktorí sa musia vyrovnávať so samotou. Až kým jedného dňa nezazvoní telefón, ktorý môže zmeniť celý jej život.

"Te is ki akarsz szállni? Gyakran szeretnél másvalaki lenni, bárki, csak ne az, aki vagy?" - kérdezi Roger a naplójában, mert neki aztán tényleg van oka, hogy elege legyen önmagából. Negyvenhárom évesen egy írószer-nagyáruházban dolgozik, rakosgatja a tollakat és a nyomtatópapírokat, vedeli a vodkát, és csak úgy csöpög belőle a bánat, mert valahol, valamikor nagyon elronthatott valamit az életében... De egyszer csak elkezdi olvasni a naplóját egy munkatársa, Bethany, a "halott lány". Aki persze nem halott, csak úgy öltözik, mintha az volna. Vagy mintha szeretne meghalni: fekete cuccok, fekete rúzs, fehérre festett arc. Roger és Bethany barátok lesznek, pedig csak egymás naplóját olvassák: különös, keserű gondolataikat az életről, amelyben m indenki kész katasztrófa. S most, hogy van végre olvasója, Roger elkezdi írni régóta tervezgetett regényét, a Kesztyűk tavát: egy öregedő író történetét, aki a feleségével együtt vedeli a whiskyt, és csak úgy csöpög belőle a bánat. Meg egy fiatal író ét, akinek a készülő könyve egy írószer-nagyáruházban játszódik... Szomorú, kegyetlenül szomorú komédia Coupland új könyve, melynek minden alakja úgy él, olyan elevenen jelenik meg előttünk, hogy pontosan érezhetjük: ez a mostani életük álcázott halá l.

This is a real-time five-hour story set in an airport cocktail lounge during a global disaster. Five disparate people are trapped inside: Karen, a single mother waiting for her online date; Rick, the down-on-his-luck airport lounge bartender; Luke, a pastor on the run; Rachel, a cool Hitchcock blonde incapable of true human contact; and finally a mysterious voice known as Player One. Slowly, each reveals the truth about themselves while the world as they know it comes to an end. In the tradition of Kurt Vonnegut and J.G. Ballard, Coupland explores the modern crises of time, human identity, society, religion and the afterlife. The book asks as many questions as it answers and readers will leave the story with no doubt that we are in a new ph ase of existence as a species o and that there is no turning back.

Nejnovější román autora kultovní "Generace X" nás zavádí do blízké budoucnosti, kdy na Zemi vyhynou všechny včely. Příběh má pět vypravěčů z celého světa - Američana, Kanaďanku, Francouze, Novozélanďanku a Srílančana. Všech pět se následkem nečekaných okolností potkává na utajeném místě kdesi v USA, kde mají přispět k vyřešení celosvětové záhady.

Andy, Dag and Claire have been handed a society priced beyond their means. Twentysomethings, brought up with divorce, Watergate and Three Mile Island, and scarred by the 80s fallout of yuppies, recession, crack and Ronald Reagan, they represent the new generation - Generation X. Fiercely suspicious of being lumped together as an advertiser's target market, they have quit dreary careers and cut themselves adrift in the California desert. Unsure of their futures, they immerse themselves in a regime of heavy drinking and working in no future McJobs in the service industry. Underemployed, overeducated and intensely private and unpredicatable, they have nowhere to direct their anger, no one to assuage their fears, and no culture to replace their anomie. So they tell stories: disturbingly funny tales that reveal their barricaded inner world. A world populated with dead TV shows, 'Elvis moments' and semi-disposible Swedish furniture ...

1979. december 15-én Karen életében először szeretkezik, s utána elmeséli a barátjának, hogy sötét látomások kínozzák. Mintha a jövőben járna furcsán valóságos álmaiban, de ez a jövő nem jó hely. Sötét és könyörtelen, s minden értelmetlenné vált benne. Néhány órával később Karen kómába süllyed, s bár kilenc hónappal később megszületik a gyereke, ő továbbra is kómában fekszik, tizenhét éven át… Hogy aztán összeaszott testtel s mégis ujjongó élni vágyással felébredjen egykori vízióinak világában, ahol látszólag minden jobb lett: a ruhák, az ételek, a kocsik… S ahol mindenféle új, csodás dolgok léteznek, a mobiltelefon például, s ugyanakkor minden túlságosan komollyá és komorrá változott. Senkinek sincs ideje egyszerűen csak élni, szeretni, boldognak lenni. Eltűnt a szabad idő, a derű, a könnyedség. S Karent most újból szörnyű gondolatok kínozzák: érzi, sőt tudja, hogy ez a világ már nem sokáig létezhet. Hogy hiába próbált valamikor a kómába menekülni előle, most mégis itt van, és át kell élnie az elképzelhetetlent… A kanadai kultíró kultregénye hátborzongató vízió korunkról és a jövőről, döbbenetes világvége-látomás, nyugtalanító allegória a Földön végigsöprő járványról, amelytől mindenki elalszik, és egy utolsó lehetőségről, amikor még talán feltehetjük a kérdéseket, melyek nélkül a világ a puszta vegetáció időtlenségébe süllyed.

Raymond Gunt likes to think of himself as a pretty decent guy--he believes in karma, and helping his fellow man, and all that other good stuff. Sure, he can be foulmouthed, occasionally misogynistic, and can just generally rub people the wrong way--through no fault of his own! So with all the positive energy he's creating, it's a little perplexing to consider the recent downward spiral his life has taken...Could the universe be trying to tell him something? A B-unit cameraman with no immediate employment prospects, Gunt decides to accept his ex-wife Fiona's offer to shoot a "Survivor-"style reality show on an obscure island in the Pacific. With his upwardly failing sidekick, Neal, in tow, Gunt somehow suffers multiple comas and unjust imprisonment, is forced to reenact the "Angry Dance" from the movie "Billy Elliot, "and finds himself at the center of a nuclear war--among other tribulations and humiliations. A razor-sharp portrait of a morally bankrupt, gleefully wicked modern man, "Worst. Person. Ever. "is a side-splittingly funny and gloriously filthy new novel from acclaimed author Douglas Coupland. A deeply unworthy book about a dreadful human being with absolutely no redeeming social value, it's guaranteed to brighten up your day.

A razor-sharp portrait of a morally bankrupt and gleefully wicked modern man, Worst. Person. Ever. is Douglas Coupland's gloriously filthy, side-splittingly funny and unforgettable novel. Meet Raymond Gunt. A decent chap who tries to do the right thing. Or, to put it another way, the worst person ever: a foul-mouthed, misanthropic cameraman, trailing creditors, ex-wives and unhappy homeless people in his wake. Men dislike him, women flee from him. Worst. Person. Ever. is a deeply unworthy book about a dreadful human being with absolutely no redeeming social value. Gunt, in the words of the author, "is a living, walking, talking, hot steaming pile of pure id." He's a B-unit cameraman who enters an amusing downward failure spiral that takes him from London to Los Angeles and then on to an obscure island in the Pacific where a major American TV network is shooting a Survivor-style reality show. Along the way, Gunt suffers multiple comas and unjust imprisonment, is forced to re-enact the 'Angry Dance' from the movie Billy Elliot and finds himself at the centre of a nuclear war. We also meet Raymond's upwardly failing sidekick, Neal, as well as Raymond's ex-wife, Fiona, herself 'an atomic bomb of pain'. Even though he really puts the 'anti' in anti-hero, you may find Raymond Gunt an oddly likeable character.

In Bit Rot, Douglas Coupland explores the different ways in which twentieth-century notions of the future are being shredded, and creates a gem of the digital age. Reading the stories and essays in Bit Rot is like bingeing on Netflix . . . you can't stop with just one. ‘Bit rot’ is a term used in digital archiving to describe the way digital files can spontaneously and quickly decompose. As Coupland writes, ‘bit rot also describes the way my brain has been feeling since 2000, as I shed older and weaker neurons and connections and enhance new and unexpected ones’. Bit Rot the book explores the ways humanity tries to make sense of our shifting consciousness. Coupland, just like the Internet, mixes forms to achieve his ends. Short fiction is interspersed with essays on all aspects of modern life. The result is addictively satisfying for Coupland’s legion of fans hungry for his observations about our world. For almost three decades, his unique pattern recognition has powered his fiction, and his phrase-making. Every page of Bit Rot is full of wit, surprise and delight.

A graphic-novel guide to the demented present from the authors of the bestselling The Age of Earthquakes If you're wondering why the inside of your head feels so strange these days, this book has the answers. The Extreme Self is a new kind of graphic novel that shows how you've been morphing into something else. It's about the remaking of your interior world as the exterior world becomes more unfamiliar and uncertain. Basar, Coupland and Obrist's cult prequel, The Age of Earthquakes: A Guide to the Extreme Present, was hailed as "a meditation on the madness of our media" (Dazed) and "an abstract representation of how we feel about our digital world" (Hello!). Like that book, The Extreme Self collapses comedy and calamity at the speed of swipe. Dazzling images are sourced from over 70 of the world's foremost artists, photographers, technologists and musicians, while Daly & Lyon's kinetic design elevates the language of memes into a manifesto. Over 14 timely chapters, The Extreme Self tours through fame and intimacy, post-work and new crowds, identity crisis and eternity. Crazed, hilarious, unsettling, true. No other book today so presciently predicts how the present and the future have become the same thing. The Extreme Self is an accelerated tale for an even more accelerated culture. Welcome to the Age of You. Cultural critic Shumon Basar (born 1974) is the author of Do You Often Confuse Love with Success and with Fame? (2012). Canadian novelist and artist Douglas Coupland (born 1961) is the author of Girlfriend in a Coma: A Novel (2008), Life After God (1994) and Generation X: Tales for an Accelerated Culture (1991). Swiss art curator, critic and art historian Hans Ulrich Obrist (born 1968) is the artistic director at the Serpentine Galleries in London and the author of numerous books, including Hans Ulrich Obrist: Infinite Conversations (2020), Ways of Curating (2014) and A Brief History of Curating (2008).

A highly provocative, mindbending, beautifully designed, and visionary look at the landscape of our rapidly evolving digital era. 50 years after Marshall McLuhan's ground breaking book on the influence of technology on culture in The Medium is the Massage, Basar, Coupland and Obrist extend the analysis to today, touring the world that's redefined by the Internet, decoding and explaining what they call the 'extreme present'. THE AGE OF EARTHQUAKES is a quick-fire paperback, harnessing the images, language and perceptions of our unfurling digital lives. The authors offer five characteristics of the Extreme Present (see below); invent a glossary of new words to describe how we are truly feeling today; and 'mindsource' images and illustrations from over 30 contemporary artists. Wayne Daly's striking graphic design imports the surreal, juxtaposed, mashed mannerisms of screen to page. It's like a culturally prescient, all-knowing email to the reader: possibly the best email they will ever read. Welcome to THE AGE OF EARTHQUAKES, a paper portrait of Now, where the Internet hasn't just changed the structure of our brains these past few years, it's also changing the structure of the planet. This is a new history of the world that fits perfectly in your back pocket. 30+ artists contributions: With contributions from Farah Al Qasimi, Ed Atkins, Alessandro Bavo, Gabriele Basilico, Josh Bitelli, James Bridle, Cao Fei, Alex Mackin Dolan, Thomas Dozol, Constant Dullaart, Cecile B Evans, Rami Farook, Hans-Peter Feldmann, GCC, K-Hole, Liam Gillick, Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster, Eloise Hawser, Camille Henrot, Hu Fang, K-Hole, Koo Jeong-A, Katja Novitskova, Lara Ogel, Trevor Paglen, Yuri Patterson, Jon Rafman, Bunny Rogers, Bogosi Sekhukhuni, Taryn Simon, Hito Steyerl, Michael Stipe, Rosemarie Trockel, Amalia Ulman, David Weir, Trevor Yeung.

Dielo súčasného kanadského autora, ktoré kritika vyzdvihuje ako jeden z najlepších románov 21. storočia, je čítanie plné nečakaných prekvapení. Liz Dunnová, podobne ako Eleanor Rigby z rovnomennej piesne Beatles, patrí k ľuďom, ktorí sa musia vyrovnávať so samotou. Až kým jedného dňa nezazvoní telefón, ktorý môže zmeniť celý jej život.