Description
Is it still WFH when you're now just binary code?
Whilst working on a spreadsheet for a New York-based PR firm, Gerald has his consciousness uploaded into his company's Slack channel. He posts for help, but his colleagues assume it's an elaborate joke to exploit the new working-from-home policy, and now that Gerald's productivity is through the roof, his bosses are only too happy to let him work from . . . wherever he says he is.
Faced with the looming abyss of a disembodied life online, Gerald enlists co-worker Pradeep to care for his body and Slackbot, the service's AI assistant, to help him navigate his new digital reality. But when Slackbot discovers a world (and an empty body) outside the app, will it hijack a ride into the 'real' world?
Meanwhile, Gerald's co-workers are scrambling to stem a company PR catastrophe like no other, their CEO suspects someone is sabotaging his office furniture, and if Gerald gets to work from home all the time, why can't everyone?
Hilarious, irreverent, and wholly original, Several People Are Typing is the perfect remedy for any idle fingers waiting to doomscroll: a satire of both the virtual office and contemporary life, and a perfect antidote to the way we live #now.
About the Author
Calvin Kasulke is a writer based in Brooklyn, New York. A Lambda Literary Fellow, his writing and reporting have been featured in VICE, Buzzfeed, and Electric Literature. This is his first book.
Reviews
A laugh-out-loud funny horror novel! * The Times *
An absurd, hilarious romp through the haunted house of late-stage capitalism * Carmen Maria Machado *
A smooth and funny read that does something smartly original both with the form of the novel and the tropes of science fiction. Office-comedy meets Tron. Why doomscroll Twitter when you can blissscroll this book? * Adam Roberts *
I loved Calvin Kasulke's debut novel. It wears weighty themes - surveillance and robot takeovers - so lightly and somehow manages to be touching and funny, as well as eerie and prescient. * Pandora Sykes *
A deadpan allegory for the autocorrect generation - less of a novel, more a full out-of-body experience. * Liam Brown *
An existential romp with a wicked sense of humor, Calvin Kasulke's debut novel is a Greek chorus of modern strife, a workplace of woebegone souls. It asks the important questions, like what it means to be a person, but also, what it means to be a gif. Several People Are Typing is a dirge for bureaucracy told by one of the funniest new writers @here. * Hilary Leichter *
Several People Are Typing is the first novel I've read that feels written of, about, and inside the internet. With cursed spreadsheets, pregnant lizards, backchannel smack-talk, :dusty_sticks:, and the creepiest gifs in American literature, Calvin Kasulke doesn't just commit to the bit; the bit commits to him. If you've ever felt imprisoned by work, the internet, or your mortal body, buy this book twice * Tony Tulathimutte *
A brilliant, laugh-out-loud funny slice of unglued genius about the triumphs and tyranny of the online workplace. Deliciously weird and wonderfully real, Several People Are Typing is a must-read for anyone who's ever suspected that the people on the other side of the screen are not all there -- Max Barry
Sharp and inventive. A virtual identity crisis in alt-book form * Matthew Holness, writer and creator of Garth Marenghi *
A unique cross between The Office, William Gibson and HP Lovecraft. Surreal and absurd, whilst also being an acute satire on workplace politics and our increasingly unhealthy relationship to online life and WFH culture. * Jeremy Dyson *
Mind-numbingly fast and gut-bustingly funny! * Good Morning America *
Kasulke's debut is a joyous tonic to the modern era workplace * SciFiNow *
Provocative, darkly amusing, and quirky as heck, this book highlights the absurdities of office life with aplomb. * LoveReading.co.uk *
Slyly satirical debut... the novel wittily addresses the dehumanising absurdities of modern office life. * Financial Times *
Book Information
ISBN 9781529358384
Author Calvin Kasulke
Format Paperback
Page Count 256
Imprint Hodder Paperback
Publisher Hodder & Stoughton
Weight(grams) 189g
Dimensions(mm) 196mm * 130mm * 20mm
