Alex Garland
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Alex Garland (born 1970) is a British novelist, the son of the political cartoonist, Nick Garland. He attended University College School, Hampstead, and the University of Manchester, where he studied art history.
His first novel, The Beach, was released in 1996 and drew on his experiences as a backpacker. It is set in what at first seems to be a utopian backpackers' paradise in Thailand, but descends to a visceral Lord of the Flies for modern times. The novel, which quickly became a cult classic, was given further notoriety by the movie with Leonardo DiCaprio in the lead role of Richard.
His second novel, The Tesseract was released in 1998. The book intertwines the lives of Manila gangsters, housewives and streetchildren. The title, referring to the four-dimensional hypercube, signifies our inability to understand the world at any level higher than our own existence.
His latest book, The Coma, was released in 2004. It tells the story of man after he is brutally beaten in an attempt to protect a young woman from a gang of thugs. After awakening from his coma and being discharged from hospital the man proceeds to piece his life together, often wondering if he really has slipped out of the coma or is merely dreaming. It is illustrated with woodcuts by his father, Nicholas. Though the novel has attracted a measure of criticism for its short length (at the price of a full-length novel), many have praised Garland's skilled treatment of this complex issue. Previous to writing The Coma, Garland was reputed to have suffered from a writer's block, although he disputes this, suggesting that he simply had other concerns.
Garland wrote the screenplay for Danny Boyle's 2003 movie 28 Days Later set in a post-apocalyptic England. He also recently wrote a movie script for the vastly popular video game. He has also written the screenplay for Danny Boyle's Sunshine.
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