Expo 58 - Hardcover

Coe, Jonathan

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 054434376X ISBN 13: 9780544343764

Publisher: New Harvest, 2014

Synopsis

A comic spy caper and international love story, set in Europe in the middle of the last century, Expo 58 is the latest sublime creation by Jonathan Coe, hailed by Nick Hornby as “probably the best English novelist of his generation.”

Handsome, unassuming Thomas Foley is an employee at the Central Office of Information whose particular biography (Belgian mother, pub-owning father) makes him just the man to oversee the “authentic British pub” that will be erected at the 1958 Brussels World’s Fair. It’s the first major expo after World War II, meant to signify unity, but there’s inevitable intrigue involving the U.S. and Soviet delegations. In the shadow of an immense, imposingly modern structure called the Atomium, the married Foley becomes both agent and pawn—when he’s not falling head over heels for Anneke, his Belgian hostess.

Funny, fast-paced, and genuinely moving, Expo 58 is both a perfect evocation of a moment in history and the welcome return of one of today’s finest novelists.

About this title

From the Back Cover:

London, 1958: unassuming civil servant Thomas Foley is plucked from his desk at the Central Office of Information and sent on a six-month trip to Brussels. His task: to keep an eye on the Brittania, a brand new pub which will form the heart of the British presence at Expo 58 - the biggest World's Fair of the century, and the first to be held since the Second World War.

As soon as he arrives at the site, Thomas feels that he has escaped a repressed, backward-looking country and fallen headlong into an era of modernity and optimism. He is equally bewitched by the surreal, gigantic Atomium, which stands at the heart of this brave new world, and by Anneke, the lovely Flemish hostess who meets him off his plane. But Thomas's new-found sense of freedom comes at a price: the Cold War is at its height, the mischievous Belgians have placed the American and Soviet pavilions right next to each other - and why is he being followed everywhere by two mysterious emissaries of the British Secret Service? Expo 58 may represent a glittering future, both for Europe and for Thomas himself, but he will soon be forced to decide where his public and private loyaties really lie.

Returning to the acidic humour of What a Carve Up! and The Rotters' Club, Jonathan Coe's new novel stirs elements of Ealing comedy, Hitchcockian thriller and political farce into an incisive, affecting portrait of Britain as it stands at a postwar crossroads, faced with crucial choices between America and Europe, the future and the past.

About the Author:

Jonathan Coe is the author of eleven novels, all published by Penguin, which include the highly acclaimed bestsellers What a Carve Up!, The House of Sleep and The Rotters' Club. His most recent novel is Number 11.

About this edition

• Publisher: New Harvest
• Publication date: 2014
• ISBN 10: 054434376X
• ISBN 13: 9780544343764
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 274