Middle England
Jonathan Coe
Narrated By: Rory Kinnear
Duration: 14 hours and 12 minutes
What to expect
Brought to you by Penguin.
Costa Best Novel Award 2019 Winner.
It was tempting to think, at times like this, that some bizarre hysteria had gripped the British people.
Beginning eight years ago on the outskirts of Birmingham, where car factories have been replaced by Poundland, and London, where frenzied riots give way to Olympic fever, Middle England follows a brilliantly vivid cast of characters through a time of immense change.
There are newlyweds Ian and Sophie, who disagree about the future of the country and, possibly, the future of their relationship; Doug, the political commentator who writes impassioned columns about austerity from his Chelsea townhouse, and his radical teenage daughter who will stop at nothing in her quest for social justice; Benjamin Trotter, who embarks on an apparently doomed new career in middle age, and his father, Colin, whose last wish is to vote in the European referendum. And within all these lives is the story of modern England: a story of nostalgia and delusion, of bewilderment and barely suppressed rage.
Middle England is read by Rory Kinnear.
Following in the footsteps of The Rotters' Club and The Closed Circle, Jonathan Coe's new novel is the novel for our strange new times.
©2018 Jonathan Coe (P)2018 Penguin Books Ltd
Genre
Modern & contemporary fiction, Narrative theme: Politics, Narrative theme: Social issues
Listen to a sample
Middle England takes all that is memorable and moving about Coe's body of work and throws it at the present emergency
Brilliant
The first great Brexit novel
Sparkled with all the acuity of his best novels . . . Uproarious and always on-the-money
Millions of words have been and will be written on Brexit but few will get to the heart of why it is happening as incisively as Middle England
Coe is as funny and tender as ever, restoring some humanity to the tumultuous societal backdrop
Brilliantly funny . . . a compelling state of the nation novel, full of light and shade, which vividly charts modern Britain's tragicomic slide
Coe is an extraordinarily deft plotter . . . he tackles big ambitious themes, in this case the effect of politics on people's lives, and political opinions on personal relations
Jonathan Coe's Middle England is brilliantly insightful on the times we are living in
Let me add to the chorus of praise for Jonathan Coe's new book Middle England. Easily my favourite of his since What a Carve Up! Which did for Thatcherism what Middle England does for Brexit
Tackling his characters' opposing points of view, he draws a portrait of a recognisable Britain baffled by its loss of industry and jobs, and of everyday people shocked by a rise of acceptable racism and xenophobia. It's also very, very funny
The beauty of Jonathan Coe's new novel, Middle England, is the way it tracks the seemingly unconnected moments that brought Britain to its knees - and with devastating delicacy, too
This book is sublimely good. State of the (Brexit) nation novel to end them all, but also funny, tender, generous, so human and intelligent about age and love as well as politics
You can't stop reading....I was haunted for days
This is a picture of England that comes from a place of compassion and understanding
From post-industrial Birmingham to the London riots and the current political gridlock, it takes in family, literature and love in a comedy for our times
Middle England combines top-class soap opera storytelling with melancholy insight into what it means to be English
Coe's comic critique of a divided country dazzles . . . properly laugh-out-loud funny . . . it is also incisive and brilliant about our divided country and the deep chasms revealed by the vote to leave. Do not miss
A copper bottomed masterpiece
No modern novelist is better at charting the precariousness of middle-class life
Jonathan Coe has established himself as one of the most entertaining chroniclers of our times
Middle England is a full-blooded state of the nation novel, and it brings us bang up-to-date
Very funny . . . Exceptionally good . . . Delightful
Probably the best English novelist of his generation
Coe can make you smile, sigh, laugh; he has abundant sympathy for his characters
In Middle England, Coe shows an understanding of this country that goes beyond what most cabinet ministers can muster . . . he subtly builds a picture that exposes the cracks in society . . . he is a master of satire but pokes fun subtly, without ever being cruel, biting or blatant . . . his light, funny writing makes you feel better
Expansive and often very funny . . . Coe - a writer of uncommon decency - reminds us that the way out of this mess is through moderation, through compromise, through that age-old English ability to laugh at ourselves
His affectionately witty attitude to our human foibles is always uplifting . . . Superb
An angry and exuberant book
The great chronicler of Englishness
This book is sublimely good. State of the (Brexit) nation novel to end them all, but also funny, tender, generous, so human and intelligent about age and love as well as politics
A pertinent, entertaining study of a nation in crisis
An astute, enlightened and enlightening journey into the heart of our current national identity crisis. Both moving and funny. As we'd expect from Coe