Hey Nostradamus!

Douglas Coupland

Dec 2008 · Bloomsbury Publishing USA

About this ebook

Pregnant and secretly married, Cheryl Anway scribbles what becomes her last will and testament 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 massacre's wake, this sleepy suburban neighborhood declares its saints, brands its demons, and moves on. But for a handful of people still reeling from that horrific day, life remains permanently derailed. Four dramatically different characters tell their stories: 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, whose rigid religiosity has separated him from nearly everyone he loves. Hey Nostradamus! is an unforgettable portrait of people wrestling with spirituality and with sorrow and its acceptance.

Ratings and reviews

This is my first foray into the world of Coupland’s writing. I quite enjoyed the story that he developed. The dark humour combined with the stark look at life and humanity to make an interesting and captivating read. There were times when I was utterly captivated with the story and others when I found the pace of the story lagged a bit. The large passage of time in the novel was quite well done. It was quite interesting to see how a single event affected 4 different individuals over the span of decades. I ‘read’ the audio version of this one and loved the narrators. The 4 different narrators, one for each section, was brilliant. They really brought the characters to life in a real and vivid way. I did have an issue with the audio version I had. It was only 4 tracks. Any time I had to pause it for too long and the player reset I had to fast forward through 150+minutes of the track to find my spot. It made it rather difficult to stay immersed in the story at times (and was beyond frustrating when I hit the wrong button). As a whole this was an enjoyable and unique tale that definitely made me think.

But the best coupland but still an excellent of his journalism multiple narrative expression, a nice story that is thought provoking, about religion, if only just as ambiguous.

About the author

Douglas Coupland is the author of the novels Generation X, Miss Wyoming, and most recently All Families Are Psychotic, among others, as well as the nonfiction works Life After God and Polaroids from the Dead. He grew up and lives in Vancouver.