The Proof of My Innocence
Published on 2. October 2025
Book
Paperback/Softback
352 pages
978-1-4059-6241-4 (ISBN)
Description
'My comfort read: anything by Jonathan Coe' Bob Mortimer
'Coe channels his anger and frustration at the direction his country has taken, as well as his abiding love for it, into prose of enduring beauty' Guardian
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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?
---
'A new Jonathan Coe is always a treat . . . Coe is a master at exploring the pains of modern life' Rosamund Urwin, The Times
'Please, God ... if there's a next life, let me write as well as Jonathan Coe' Anthony Bourdain
'Probably the best English novelist of his generation' Nick Hornby
'Deeply pleasurable, and a lot of fun. You emerge from it glowing' iPaper
'Coe channels his anger and frustration at the direction his country has taken, as well as his abiding love for it, into prose of enduring beauty' Guardian
---
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?
---
'A new Jonathan Coe is always a treat . . . Coe is a master at exploring the pains of modern life' Rosamund Urwin, The Times
'Please, God ... if there's a next life, let me write as well as Jonathan Coe' Anthony Bourdain
'Probably the best English novelist of his generation' Nick Hornby
'Deeply pleasurable, and a lot of fun. You emerge from it glowing' iPaper
Reviews / Votes
Wonderfully accomplished and darkly funny. The Proof of My Innocence is a murder mystery, a satire on Britain's ever right-ward drift, culminating in Liz Truss; and an inquiry into truth and perception. Jonathan Coe gets better and better -- Luke Harding A brilliant, shrewd, satirical novel - gimlet-eyed, funny, very clever and a searchingly profound look at the state of this strange country of ours. -- William Boyd The premier satirist of great British crapness is on killer form in this gag-a-minute mystery - who but Coe would think to structure a book around the abysmal transport police mantra "See It. Say It. Sorted"? * Observer * A funny, smart and innovative exploration of contemporary British political dynamics -- Nussaibah Younis A wonderfully farcical and absurd book that puts into perspective the political chaos of post-Brexit Britain * Foyles * Coe is on engaging form... satiric and entertaining brio * Sunday Times * Full of energy... a madcap caper, a sideways memoir, a tricksy 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 A new Jonathan Coe is always a treat . . . Coe is a master at exploring the pains of modern life -- Rosamund Urwin * The Times * Endlessly satisfying * Spectator *More details
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Product notice
Paperback (UK-B)
Dimensions
Height: 195 mm
Width: 126 mm
Thickness: 24 mm
Weight
246 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-4059-6241-4 (9781405962414)
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
The Proof of My Innocence
A hilarious new novel from the bestselling author of Middle England
E-Book
11/2024
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.