The Gum Thief - Douglas Coupland

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.