The Terrible Privacy of Maxwell Sim

Maxwell Sim seems to have hit rock bottom. Estranged from his father, newly divorced, unable to communicate with his only daughter, he realizes that while he may have seventy-four friends on Facebook, there is nobody in the world with whom he can actually share his problems. Then a business proposition comes his way - a strange exercise in corporate PR that will require him to spend a week driving from London to a remote retail outlet on the Shetland Isles. Setting out with an open mind, good intentions and a friendly voice on his SatNav for company, Maxwell finds that this journey soon takes a more serious turn, and carries him not only to the furthest point of the United Kingdom, but into some of the deepest and darkest corners of his own past. In his sparkling and hugely enjoyable new book Jonathan Coe reinvents the picaresque novel for our time. 'Coe's book is as funny and as well written as you'd expect: even the banality of Maxwell's mind is rendered deadpan, with wonderful lightness. It is archly and artfully structured, too; though I can't, without spoiling a plot that delivers revelations and switch backs in careful sequence, go deeply into how.' Sam Leith, Prospect Magazine 'An engaging novel.' Lianne Kolirin, The Express 'Coe has always been a virtuoso of voice. He is the master of the kind of distinctively English comedy that has its roots in Fielding and Sterne.' Jonathan Derbyshire, New Statesman 'Funny and touching.' Grazia 'A highly engaging portrait of both a man and a society that have lost their way.' Michael Arditti, Daily Mail 'The plot is everything Max is not: clever, engaging, and spring-loaded with mysteries and surprises.' Caroline McGinn, Time Out London 'exceptionally moving...... [managing] to tell us something about loneliness, failure and the inability to cope that we haven't quite read before.' Alex Clark, The Guardian 'The Terrible Privacy of Maxwell Sim is 'cunningly plotted, extremely well-written and very, very funny.' Mark Sanderson, The Telegraph 'The Terrible Privacy is more intimate than Coe's previous novels. Coe may blackly satirise an atomised 21st-century Britain pockmarked by Travelodges and in thrall to the empty caress of instant messaging but this geographical and cultural hinterland is really a physical correlative for Sim's existential crisis.' Claire Allfree, Metro 'The Terrible Privacy is a brilliant achievement.' WORD Magazine 'The novel is is an amusing confrontation with its up-to-the-minute themes and a handsome success.' The Times - Lead Fiction review, Leo Robson 'In one pivotal scene, Maxwell is reunited with his daughter in a restaurant and both spend the encounter texting and BlackBerrying. Which is one thing you are guaranteed not to do while reading this deliriously funny book.' TATLER - Sebastian Shakespare 'Jonathan Coe's engaging tale about a solitary man says much about modern society.' OBSERVER, Jeremy Paxman