Audiobooks by Douglas Coupland

Microserfs & Girlfriend in a Coma: Two Full-Cast BBC Radio Dramatisations

"Coupland's iconic novels brought to life in two full-cast adaptations Bursting onto the literary scene in 1991 with his debut Generation X, Douglas Coupland's novels swiftly established themselves as modern classics and brought the term 'Gen X' into the mainstream. His work still has resonance in today's world, with his vivid explorations of identity and creativity in the post-Baby Boomer generations. These pitch perfect adaptions probe our modern popular culture, with the author's signature wry twists and unsettling revelations. In this brand new adaptation by Theo Toksvig-Stewart, Douglas Coupland's brilliantly funny novel Microserfs takes a microscope to working culture in the early days of the tech boom. Dan is a Microsoft employee in desperate need of 'a life'. His world can be summed up as eat, sleep, code, repeat, and he's not quite feeling himself. So when the chance comes along for him and his friends to leave Microsoft to form a Silicon Valley start-up called OOP!, will they take the risk and leap into the unknown? In an unflinching and hilarious story, Dan and the other Microserfs try to find purpose, love and identity in the real world. Perhaps one of Coupland's most iconic novels, Girlfriend in a Coma begins in December 1979 when 17-year-old Karen unexpectedly falls into a deep coma after a teen house party. Frighteningly, she'd predicted the end of the world in a letter sent to her boyfriend before she collapsed. Fifteen years later, Karen wakes up. The world in 1997 is a very different and confusing place. Her friends have grown up and their reality bears little resemblance to the hopes and dreams they shared in their youth. There are questions that need to be answered, time is running out and Karen must act. Available as a double bill for the first time, these stunning adaptations are a fantastic listen. Performed by a full cast with production by Sony award-winning producer Dan Rebellato, these stories make for a stellar audio experience not to be missed. Cast and credits Microserfs Written by Douglas Coupland Dramatised by Theo Toksvig-Stewart Directed by Anne Isger Production Co-ordination by Luke MacGregor Sound by Cal Knightley, Pete Ringrose, David Gregory, Billy Godfrey Dan - Will Merrick Karla - Samantha Dakin Bug - Matthew Needham Michael - Freddie Meredith Todd - Chris Lew Kum Hoi Susan - Chloë Sommer Abe - Hughie O'Donnell Ethan - Tom Kiteley Dan's Mum - Joanna Monro Dan's Dad - Roger Ringrose Dusty - Fiona Skinner Amy - Grace Saif First Broadcast BBC Radio 4, 27 November 2022 Girlfriend in a Coma Written by Douglas Coupland Dramatised by Dan Rebellato Produced by Polly Thomas Music by Alice Trueman Sound Design by Steve Brooke Jared - Florian Hutter Karen - Rayisa Kondracki Wendy - Maggie Blake Richard - Jason Durran Hamilton - Simon Lee Phillips Pamela - Heather Dann Doctor - Peter Marinker Megan - Julia Summer Gloria - Buffy Davis First Broadcast BBC Radio 3, 24 February 2008 ©2023 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd (P)2023 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd"

Douglas Coupland (Author), Florian Hutter, Full Cast, Jason Durran, Matthew Needham, Rayisa Kondracki, Samantha Dakin, Will Merrick (Narrator)

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Binge: 60 stories to make your brain feel different

"The first new work of fiction since 2013 from one of Canada's most successful, idiosyncratic and world-defining writers, Douglas Coupland. He's called it Binge because it's impossible to read just one. Imagine feeling 100% alive every moment of every minute of the day! Maybe that's how animals live. Or trees, even. I sometimes stare at the plastic bag tree visible from my apartment window and marvel that both it and I are equally alive and that there's no sliding scale of life. You're either alive, or you're not. Or you're dead or you're not.     Thirty years after Douglas Coupland broke the fiction mould and defined a generation with Generation X, he is back with Binge, 60 stories laced with his observational profundity about the way we live and his existential worry about how we should be living: the very things that have made him such an influential and bestselling writer. Not to mention that he can also be really funny.     Here the narrators vary from story to story as Doug catches what he calls 'the voice of the people,' inspired by the way we write about ourselves and our experiences in online forums. The characters, of course, are Doug's own: crackpots, cranks and sweetie-pies, dad dancers and perpetrators of carbecues. People in the grip of unconscionable urges; lonely people; dying people; silly people. If you love Doug's fiction, this collection is like rain on the desert. Featuring stories narrated by: Victoria Carr; Selena Dhillon; Stephanie Belding; Lorna Wilson; Liz Dunn; Jane Pratt; Charlotte Shaifer; Caleb Stull; Salvatore Antonio; Will Ferguson; Douglas Coupland ; Genki Ferguson; Jarvis Cocker; Chuck Klosterman; Michael Stipe; and Bret Easton Ellis"

Douglas Coupland (Author), Andrew Moodie, Anna Faris, Bret Easton Ellis, Chuck Klosterman, Douglas Coupland, Genki Ferguson, Jane Pratt, Jarvis Cocker, Katie Ryerson, Michael Stipe, Salvatore Antonio, Stephanie Belding, Victoria Carr, Will Ferguson (Narrator)

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Microserfs

"They are Microserfs—six code-crunching computer whizzes who spend upward of sixteen hours a day 'coding' and eating 'flat' foods (food which, like Kraft singles, can be passed underneath closed doors) as they fearfully scan company e-mail to learn whether the great Bill is going to 'flame' one of them. But now there's a chance to become innovators instead of cogs in the gargantuan Microsoft machine. The intrepid Microserfs are striking out on their own—living together in a shared digital flophouse as they desperately try to cultivate well-rounded lives and find love amid the dislocated, subhuman whir and buzz of their computer-driven world."

Douglas Coupland (Author), Graham Rowat (Narrator)

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Worst. Person. Ever.

"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."

Douglas Coupland (Author), Julian Rhind-Tutt (Narrator)

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Hey Nostradamus!

"Hey Nostradamus wrestles with religion and nihilism, sorrow and acceptance. It will take you to a place you didn't know existed."

Douglas Coupland (Author), David Ledoux, Jenna Lamia, Jillian Crane, John Randolph Jones (Narrator)

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