Mr Wilder and Me
Published on 1. July 2021
Book
Paperback/Softback
256 pages
978-0-241-98971-5 (ISBN)
Description
The prize-winning, bestselling author of Middle England turns his gaze to one of cinema's most intriguing figures - famed director of Some Like It Hot, Billy Wilder.
***SOON TO BE A MAJOR FILM***
In the summer of 1977, naive Calista Frangopoulou sets out to venture into the world. On a Greek island that has been turned into a film set, she finds herself working for Billy Wilder, about whom she knows almost nothing.
While Calista is thrilled with her new adventure, Wilder himself is living with the realisation that his star may be on the wane. Rebuffed by Hollywood, he has financed his film with German money, and when Calista follows him to Munich, she finds herself joining him on a journey of memory into the dark heart of his family history.
At once a tender coming-of-age story and an intimate portrait of a Hollywood icon, Mr Wilder and Me explores the nature of time and fame, of family and the treacherous lure of nostalgia . . .
__________
'Utterly charming, deeply poignant and ultimately uplifting' Mail on Sunday
'Sweeps beautifully from Hollywood to Greece and London' FT, Best Books of 2020
'The dialogue's sharp, the comic timing excellent' Sunday Times
***SOON TO BE A MAJOR FILM***
In the summer of 1977, naive Calista Frangopoulou sets out to venture into the world. On a Greek island that has been turned into a film set, she finds herself working for Billy Wilder, about whom she knows almost nothing.
While Calista is thrilled with her new adventure, Wilder himself is living with the realisation that his star may be on the wane. Rebuffed by Hollywood, he has financed his film with German money, and when Calista follows him to Munich, she finds herself joining him on a journey of memory into the dark heart of his family history.
At once a tender coming-of-age story and an intimate portrait of a Hollywood icon, Mr Wilder and Me explores the nature of time and fame, of family and the treacherous lure of nostalgia . . .
__________
'Utterly charming, deeply poignant and ultimately uplifting' Mail on Sunday
'Sweeps beautifully from Hollywood to Greece and London' FT, Best Books of 2020
'The dialogue's sharp, the comic timing excellent' Sunday Times
Reviews / Votes
A satisfyingly sweeping novel that still manages to push the form in new directions. As good as anything he's written - a novel to cherish * Observer * An account of Billy Wilder's later years that sweeps beautifully from Hollywood to Greece and London while all the time reflecting on the horrors of 20th-century Europe * FT, Best Books of 2020 * This elegiac novella is utterly charming, deeply poignant and ultimately uplifting. And yes, it would make a great film * Mail on Sunday * An insightful and moving story about how memories can or cannot be passed down through the generations -- Kazuo IshiguroMore details
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Product notice
Paperback (UK-B)
Dimensions
Height: 195 mm
Width: 126 mm
Thickness: 19 mm
Weight
182 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-241-98971-5 (9780241989715)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
Jonathan Coe
Mr Wilder and Me
A sun-soaked historical coming-of-age set behind the scenes of a Hollywood film production
E-Book
11/2020
1st Edition
Penguin Books Ltd
€8.99
Available for download
Person
Jonathan Coe was born in Birmingham in 1961. He is the award-winning, bestselling author of fifteen novels, including What a Carve Up!, The Rotters' Club, Middle England and, most recently, The Proof of My Innocence. He has won the Costa Novel Award, the Prix du Livre Europeen, the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize, the Prix Medicis Etranger and the Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize, among many others. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and an Officier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres. His work has been translated into twenty-two languages. Jonathan Coe lives in London.