The Proof of My Innocence: A hilarious new novel from the bestselling author of Middle England - Softcover

Coe, Jonathan

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0241678420 ISBN 13: 9780241678428

Publisher: Viking, 2024

Synopsis

'The premier satirist of great British crapness is on killer form in this gag-a-minute mystery' Observer

'A new Jonathan Coe is always a treat... Coe is a master at exploring the pains of modern life' The Times

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Post-university life doesn’t suit Phyl. Time passes slowly, living with her parents and working a zero-hours contract at Heathrow Airport, while her budding plans of becoming a writer are going nowhere.

That is, until family friend Chris comes to stay. He’s been investigating a radical think tank, founded at Cambridge University in the 1980s, that’s been scheming to push the British government in an ever more extreme direction. When he follows this story to a conference in a rambling old hotel deep in the Cotswolds, events take a bizarre and sinister turn. Soon he is caught up in a world of cryptic clues, secret passages and, eventually, murder.

In the end, despite the efforts of a suitably eccentric detective, it falls to Phyl herself – ably assisted by Chris’s outspoken adopted daughter Rashida - to look for answers to the fatal mystery. But will they lie in contemporary politics, or in a literary enigma that is almost forty years old?

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'Full of energy... a madcap caper, a sideways memoir, a tricky jeu d'esprit that is also a quiet defence of fiction in a post-truth age, and enormous fun to read' Guardian

'Deeply pleasurable, and a lot of fun. You emerge from it glowing' iPaper

'Fantastic, wickedly funny and gripping. Coe has written a beautifully crafted mystery that dovetails as a sharp, smart, state of the nation' Simon McCleave

'I was delighted... it's clever and political - while also being very funny' John Self

About this title

About the Author

Jonathan Coe was born a few miles from Bournville in 1961. The author of political satires such as Bournville, What a Carve Up! and Number 11, and family sagas such as The Rotters' Club and The Rain Before It Falls, his novels have won prizes at home and abroad, including Costa Novel of the Year and the Prix du Livre Européen (both for Middle England).

From the Back Cover

When Phyl, a young literature graduate, moves back home with her parents, she soon finds herself frustrated by the narrow horizons of English country life. As for her plans of becoming a writer, those are going nowhere. But the chance discovery of a forgotten novelist from the 1980s stirs her into action, as does a visit from her uncle Richard - especially when he tells her that he’s working on a political story that might put his life in danger.

Richard has been following the careers of a group of stud

Edition details

• Publisher: Viking
• Publication date: 2024
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0241678420
• ISBN 13: 9780241678428
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 352