Generica (Audiobook)
In this audiobook of his satirical, fast-paced novel, Will Ferguson skewers society's obsession with self-improvement.
Generica is the story of Edwin de Valu, a beleaguered junior editor at Panderic Press. In desperate need of a new self-help author, Panderic decides to publish a rambling 1000-page manuscript by an obscure author named Tupak Soirée. What I Learned on the Mountain is different from any self-help book before it in one respect — it works!
The book quickly becomes the best selling book ever. Suddenly, everyone CAN be happy, CAN lose weight and stop smoking, and CAN get rich quick. Edwin fears that the bliss he has unleashed on the world may indeed be a curse. One by one his friends and family take up the cult of "Happiness" (a word now trademarked by Panderic Press). Soon Edwin begins to see that any system of blind acceptance is ultimately destructive. He realizes that he is the unlikely champion that fate has chosen to fight the menace of Happiness™.
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"This is broad satire . . . told with an impish, nudge-wink grin. Ron Halder's witty performance is perfectly tailored to the material." — The Globe and Mail
Will Ferguson is a bestselling author whose work has spanned fiction, travel writing, history, and humour. His literary thriller 419 won the Giller Prize in 2012, and his novel The Finder received the 2021 Arthur Ellis Award for Crime Fiction. A three-time winner of the Stephen Leacock Memorial Medal for Humor, he has been nominated for both the IMPAC Dublin Award and a Commonwealth Writers’ Prize.
Ferguson’s travels have taken him around the globe. He lived in Japan for five years and regularly returns to visit his extended family. He is the author of the celebrated Japanese travel memoir Hitching Rides with Buddha (originally titled Hokkaido Highway Blues) and the budget The Hitchhiker’s Guide to Japan. He walked across Northern Ireland in Beyond Belfast, travelled Canada in Beauty Tips from Moose Jaw, and journeyed through central Africa in Road Trip Rwanda. His debut novel, Happiness, was sold into 23 languages. Ferguson has written for The New York Times, Esquire UK, and Canadian Geographic. He lives in Calgary.
