Coe pens 'devastating' novel of the present

Jonathan Coe has written a “novel of the present” set over the last eight years “through a time of immense change and disruption in Britain”, due for release this November.

Viking is set to publish Middle England, describing the work as both “funny” and “devastating”.

Mary Mount, publisher at Viking, said: “Middle England is the novel of the present I have been longing to read. Set in the Midlands and London over the last eight years, Jonathan Coe follows a brilliantly vivid cast of characters through a time of immense change and disruption in Britain.

“As acutely alert to the absurdity of the political classes as he is compassionate about those who have been left behind, this is a novel Jonathan Coe was born to write. If it doesn’t sound like a cliché – and it probably does -  it made me laugh a lot and also brought me to the edge of tears.”

The publisher holds UK and Commonwealth rights, signed through literary agent Tony Peake.

Coe has authored 11 novels, all published by Penguin, which include bestsellers What a Carve Up!, The House of Sleep and The Rotters' Club and Number 11. He has sold 641,801 print copies for £4.75m through Nielsen BookScan in the UK, with his bestseller The Rotters' Club at 150,588 copies sold.

The novel is due for release on 8th November.