The city of Vancouver means different things to different people, but it is as revered and beloved by its residents as it is by the millions of people who visit every year. It's a diverse, thrumming metropolis and a calm and beautiful recreation destination; it's a young city still striving for identity and a storied settlement rich in legend. And it has been both the inspiration and setting for some of Canada's most interesting fiction.

Framed by an incisive introduction from West Coast literary doyen Douglas Coupland, the wide array of short fiction collected in Vancouver Stories reveals just how varied Vancouver really is. Discover this great city through the stories of Pauline Johnson and Emily Carr, through the eyes of such 20th-century literary giants as Alice Munro, Ethel Wilson and Malcolm Lowry, and through the words of more contemporary writers such as William Gibson, Timothy Taylor, Zsuzsi Gartner and Madeline Thien.

Spanning a period of nearly 80 years, the 15 stories in this collection present the experience of Vancouver-living here, visiting or just passing through-filtered through the imaginations of some of Canada's most famous fiction stylists.

"Sooner or later, everyone in the country came to this city by the mountains and the sea. Some just to ogle, many to stay. People here liked it with something that bordered on religious fervour." -from "City of My Dreams" by Zsuzsi Gartner

Raincoast Books' profile page

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Douglas Coupland was born on a Canadian NATO base in Germany and raised in Vancouver, where he still resides. Among his best-selling novels are Generation X, Shampoo Planet, Polaroids From The Dead, Microserfs, Miss Wyoming, Hey Nostradamus! and Eleanor Rigby, altogether in print in some 40 countries. Coupland also exhibits his sculpture in galleries around the world, indulging in design experiments that include everything from launching collections of furniture to futurological consulting for Stephen Spielberg.

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Douglas Coupland's profile page