The Coma, is novel by Alex Garland, illustrated by his father, Nicholas Garland. It explores the boundary between the conscious and subconscious mind. The Coma was published in 2004, eight years after Garland's first novel, The Beach.
While traveling home on an underground train, Carl is forced to defend a young girl from the harassment of a group of men. For his efforts, Carl is violently attacked and falls into a coma. When he awakes, he quickly discovers that his seemingly normal world is very peculiar.
In 2006, The Coma was adapted into a play by a writer called Marcus Condron, and then was performed by a theatre group called 'We Could Be Kings'. The play made heavy use of projected video content to help express the thoughts of Carl, and original music was composed for the piece by Alex Cornish. It opened at the Edinburgh Fringe, and although there were rumors of a transfer to London it never happened.
The production was selected as a Guardian pick of the festival and was also voted in the top three festival shows by a guardian reviewer.