The Gum Thief

The first and only story of love and looming apocalypse set in the aisles of an office supply superstore. In Douglas Coupland’s ingenious novel—sort of a Clerks-meets-Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf—we meet Roger, a divorced, middle-aged “aisles associate” at a Staples outlet, condemned to restocking reams of twenty-lb. bond paper for the rest of his life. And then there’s Roger’s co-worker Bethany, who’s at the end of her Goth phase, and young enough to be looking at fifty more years of sorting the red pens from the blue in Aisle Six. One day, Bethany comes across Roger’s notebook in the staff room. When she opens it up, she discovers that this old guy she’s never considered as quite human is writing mock diary entries pretending to be her—and spookily, he is getting her right. She also learns he has a tragedy in his past—and suddenly he no longer seems like just a paper-stocking robot with a name tag. These two retail workers strike up a peculiar and touching epistolary relationship, reminding us that love, death and eternal friendship can all transpire where we least expect them. Through a complex layering of narratives, The Gum Thief highlights number-one bestselling author Douglas Coupland’s eye for the comedy, loneliness and strange comforts of contemporary life.