BOOK OF THE WEEK - THE GUM THIEF

The first and only story of love and looming apocalypse set in the aisles of an office supply superstore. Meet Roger, a divorced, middle-aged “aisles associate” at Staples, condemned to restocking reams of 20-lb. bond paper for the rest of his life. And Roger’s co-worker Bethany, in her early twenties and at the end of her Goth phase, who is looking at fifty more years of sorting the red pens from the blue in aisle 6. These two retail workers then strike up an extraordinary epistolary relationship. Through a complex layering of narratives, The Gum Thief reveals the comedy, loneliness, and strange comforts of contemporary life.

Douglas Coupland is Canadian, born on a Canadian Air Force base near Baden-Baden, Germany, on December 30, 1961. In 1965 his family moved to Vancouver, Canada, where he continues to live and work. Coupland has studied art and design in Vancouver, Canada, Milan, Italy and Sapporo, Japan.

His first novel, Generation X, was published in March of 1991. Since then he has published ten novels and several non-fiction books in 35 languages and most countries on earth. He has written and performed for the Royal Shakespeare Company in Stratford, England, and in 2001 resumed his practice as a visual artist, with exhibitions in spaces in North America, Europe and Asia. 2006 marks the premiere of the feature film Everything’s Gone Green, his first story written specifically for the screen and not adapted from any previous work. In 2007 Coupland’s novel, jPod, was adapted into a series of thirteen one-hour episodes with Canada’s CBC.

His next novel, Generation A, will be published in the UK, Canada and US in fall of 2009.

Available at Aksara Bookstore, Pacific Place Jakarta. 4th Floor. www.aksara.com