Mr Wilder and Me

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What to expect

Brought to you by Penguin.

From the prize-winning, bestselling author of Middle England.

In the heady summer of 1977, a naïve young woman called Calista sets out from Athens to venture into the wider world. On a Greek island that has been turned into a film set, she finds herself working for the famed Hollywood director Billy Wilder, about whom she knows almost nothing. But the time she spends in this glamorous, unfamiliar new life will change her for good.

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 new film with German money, and when Calista follows him to Munich for the shooting of further scenes, she finds herself joining him on a journey of memory into the dark heart of his family history.

In a novel that is at once a tender coming-of-age story and an intimate portrait of one of cinema's most intriguing figures, Jonathan Coe turns his gaze on the nature of time and fame, of family and the treacherous lure of nostalgia. When the world is catapulting towards change, do you hold on for dear life or decide it's time to let go?

Praise for Jonathan Coe

'Coe is a writer of uncommon decency' Observer

'Brilliantly funny' Economist

'Superb' Times

'Very, very funny' Stylist

© Jonathan Coe 2020 (P) Penguin Audio 2020

Critics Review

  • 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

  • Effortlessly pleasurable and deceptively simple. Mr Wilder & Me doesn’t lack resonance, yet stays light on its feet. The whole book feels like some marvellous party where you ricochet from one good conversation to another

    The Times

  • A coming of age story which offers a fascinating insight into fame – and the perils of an industry in flux

    Daily Telegraph

  • One of my favourite writers . . . a thoughtful tender read

    Good Housekeeping

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