leader in the Youth Alive! movement, and looms over his brother as his father's chosen son. Kent is married to Barb, and has two twin sons with her. He dies in the beginning of the second part from a car accident. Barb Kent's wife, but she is the mother of Jason's twin sons, therefore Kent's nephews. She and Kent tried to have kids but it didn't work. Since she was desperate to have kids, and Kent dies, she forces Jason to have kids with her. Since, she wanted her kids to look like they're Kent's and her child, so she has sex with Jason so that there are chances of her child looking like Kent. After a fallout with Reg, she remains close to Jason until his disappearance. She is a different person from Kent in many ways, and is very different after the death of Kent. Heather Jason's romantic partner in the latter half of the novel, Heather is the narrator of the third part of the novel. She is a woman who feels distant and is brought back into the world, just as she brings out Jason from his emotional seclusion. She creates characters and stories with Jason, which are later provided back to her by a psychic, who Heather believes will bring her back to the missing Jason. Inspiration Coupland began to write the novel in December 2001, after a "nightmarish 40-city tour that began on 10 September". This tour took him across the United States and allowed him to experience the "collective sorrow" of the United States. Coupland began to research the Columbine events after this experience. The quotation from Corinthians that opens the novel was found on a gravestone of one of the children who died in a high school shooting. History of the novel An international best-selling novel, the novel was received well by critics. The novel was released the same week as Gus Van Sant's film Elephant, which also dealt with a Columbine-like situation. Coupland also had an art installation on the same topic, called "Tropical Birds", which featured 3D versions of the kneeling figure from the front cover of Hey Nostradamus!, and other pieces which features scenes from a school shooting tragedy. Further reading See also Columbine High School massacre Delbrook Senior Secondary School References External links Book review from The Guardian 2003 Canadian novels Epistolary novels Novels by Douglas Coupland Novels