'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

'My comfort read: anything by Jonathan Coe' Bob Mortimer

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Post-university life doesn’t suit Phyl. Time passes slowly living back home with her parents, working a zero-hour contract serving Japanese food to holidaymakers at Heathrow’s Terminal 5. As for her budding plans of becoming a writer, those are going nowhere.

That is, until family friend Chris comes to stay. He’s been on the path to uncover a sinister think-tank, founded at Cambridge University in the 1980s, that’s been scheming to push the British government in a more extreme direction. One that’s finally poised to put their plans into action.

But speaking truth to power can be dangerous - and power will stop at nothing to stay on top.

As Britain finds itself under the leadership of a new Prime Minister whose tenure will only last for seven weeks, Chris pursues his story to a conference being held deep in the Cotswolds, where events take a sinister turn and a murder enquiry is soon in progress. But will the solution to the mystery lie in contemporary politics, or in a literary enigma that is almost forty years old?

Darting between decades and genres, THE PROOF OF MY INNOCENCE is a wickedly funny and razor-sharp new novel from one of Britain’s most beloved novelists, showing how the key to understanding the present can often be found in the murkiest corners of the past.

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'Coe shows an understanding of this country that goes beyond what most cabinet ministers can muster . . . 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' Evening Standard

'A novelist who gains in range and reputation with every book' Pat Barker

'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

"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

"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

"The funniest serious novelist practising in this country" - Independent

"A wonderfully farcical and absurd book that puts into perspective the political chaos of post-Brexit Britain" - Foyles

"A new Jonathan Coe is always a treat . . . Coe is a master at exploring the pains of modern life" - The Times

"Light as a souffle and tremendously funny" - Observer

"For all its irony, its tricksiness, its surface light-heartedness, The Proof of My Innocence is a novel earnestly using fiction as a way of telling the truth" - The Arts Desk

"Full of humour and warmth, this re-imagining of the cosy crime genre is irresistible" - Hatchards

"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

"Coe is among the handful of novelists who can tell us something about the temper of our times" - Observer

"Coe shows an understanding of this country that goes beyond what most cabinet ministers can muster . . . 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" - Evening Standard

"Coe has huge powers of observation and enormous literary panache" - Sunday Times

"British novelists love to diagnose the state of the nation. Few do it better than Jonathan Coe, who writes with warmth and subversive glee about social change" - Spectator

"Few contemporary writers can make a success of the state of the nation novel: Jonathan Coe is one of them" - New Statesman