Author | Douglas Coupland |
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Language | English |
Genre | Novel |
Publisher | HarperCollins Canada |
Publication date | 1998 |
Publication place | Canada |
Media type | Print (Hardback and Paperback) |
Pages | 288 pp |
ISBN | 0-00-224396-2 (First edition, hardcover), 0694519510 (First American edition) |
OCLC | 247636406 |
Preceded by | Polaroids from the Dead |
Followed by | Miss Wyoming |
Girlfriend in a Coma is a novel by Canadian writer and artist Douglas Coupland. It was first published by HarperCollins Canada in 1998. The novel tells the story of a group of friends growing up in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada in the late 1970s. On the night of a teenage house-wrecking party, one of the protagonists, Karen, falls into a coma. More alarmingly, she seemed to expect it, having given her boyfriend, Richard, a letter detailing the vivid dreams of the future she had experienced and how she wanted to sleep for a thousand years to avoid that dystopia.
The book was named after the 1987 single "Girlfriend in a Coma" by The Smiths. Additionally, Coupland uses other Smiths lyrics, song and album titles within the book such as "Bigmouth Strikes Again", "Hand in Glove", and "The Queen Is Dead".