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The Coma

By Alex Garland

(23)

| Paperback | 9780571223077

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Book Description

The acclaimed author of The Beach returns with a mesmerizing and highly original work of intrigue.

Proclaimed "a gifted storyteller" by The New Yorker and "a huge literary talent" by Kazuo Ishiguro, Alex Garland, the internationally bestselling author of The Beach, TContinue

Critics

Coma chameleon

The Coma by Alex Garland Faber £9.99, pp160 It's ten years since Alex Garland started to write his first novel, The Beach. In some ways he has spent the decade confounding the expectations that the extraordinary success of that book placed upon him. ... (read full critics)

guardian.co.uk published on Sat, 25 Sep 2010

The floating world

The Coma by Alex Garland 160pp, Faber, £9.99 There has been a spate of books about receiving a bang on the head recently. Martin Amis's Yellow Dog traced the effect of a personality transformation after an assault. Liz Jensen's The Ninth Life of Loui ... (read full critics)

guardian.co.uk published on Sat, 25 Sep 2010

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2 Reviews

1 person find this helpful

This a book you could read in a few hours (maybe less), yet I got halfway through and abandoned it.
It's the story of a man in a coma... or is it? As a writing exercise, I'm sure it works quite well, as a novel, not so much.
There are graphic plates scattered throughout to illustrate th ... (continue)

This a book you could read in a few hours (maybe less), yet I got halfway through and abandoned it.
It's the story of a man in a coma... or is it? As a writing exercise, I'm sure it works quite well, as a novel, not so much.
There are graphic plates scattered throughout to illustrate the novel's progress -- though arguably, they just serve to further confuse. For a tiny little hardcover book with big print, it doesn't need pictures to pad it out.
I'm not sure I'll ever finish this one.

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Caroline said on Oct 30, 2007 | Add your feedback

The wood carving illustrations were excellent, a good enhancement of the story. Got quite a few cases of deja-vu through reading the "dreams" morphing into one another.

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Linda said on May 5, 2011 | Add your feedback