Book description
The story of one family piecing itself back together after a tragic
highschool shooting, Hey Nostradamus! is Douglas Coupland's most
soulful, piercing and searching novel yet.
Pregnant and secretly married, Cheryl Anway scribbles her last will and
testament - and erie premonition - on a school binder shortly before a
rampaging trio of misfit classmates gun her down in a high school
cafeteria. Overrun with paranoia, teenage angst and religious zeal in
the ensuing massacre's wake, this sleepy Vancouver neighbourhood
declares its saints, brands its demons and finally moves on.
But for a handful of people still reeling from that horrific day, life
remains perpetually derailed. Four dramatically different characters
tell their stories in their own words: Cheryl, who calmly narrates her
own death; Jason, the boy no one knew was her husband, still marooned
ten years later by his loss; Heather, the woman trying to love the
shattered Jason; and Jason's father Reg, a cruelly religious man no one
suspects is still worth loving. Each wrestles with God, self-defeat and
a crippling inability to hold on to those they love.
Coupland's most surprising and soulful novel yet, rich with his
trademark cultural acuity and dark humour, Hey Nostradamus! ties themes
of alienation, violence and misguided faith into a fateful and
unforgettable knot from which four people must untangle their lives.
'Douglas Coupland has surely reserved his place at the top table of
North American fiction.' Independent on Sunday
'Nothing less than sublime' Time Out
'This is far too wise a book to offer answers, but it affirms that
seeking them is a necessary part of our humanity.' Independent
'Clever, affecting… God it was a pleasure to read.' Ali Smith, author
of Hotel World DOUGLAS COUPLAND first came to prominence as the author
of Generation X (1995). He followed that with a sequence of ever-more
daring and inventive novels, including Shampoo Planet, Life After God,
Girlfriend in a Coma and, most recently, All Families Are Psychotic. He
lives in Vancouver.
