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Alex Garland (born 1970) is a British novelist.

Garland is the son of 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 published 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 made into a movie by Danny Boyle with Leonardo DiCaprio in the lead role of Richard, however the movie did not stay completely true to the book.

His second novel, The Tesseract was published in 1999. 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. This was also made into a movie, starring Jonathan Rhys Meyers.

His latest book, The Coma, was published 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[1] (at the price of a full-length novel), many have praised Garland's skilled treatment of this complex issue. Prior 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^{[citation needed]}.

Garland wrote the screenplay, and book for Danny Boyle's 2003 movie 28 Days Later set in a post-apocalyptic England. He also recently wrote an early draft of the screenplay for the vastly popular Halo: Combat Evolved video game. He is also involved with two of Danny Boyle's 2007 projects: Sunshine and the sequel to 28 Days Later, 28 Weeks Later which will be released on May 11.

• There was a rumor that Garland was to write Saw 2^{[citation needed]}. This ended up being false as Leigh Whannell and Darren Lynn Bousman were the writers of that film.

• Alex Garland at the Internet Movie Database
• Backpacker Blues: Spike Magazine interview with Alex Garland
• "Beach Boy" interview