The Proof of My Innocence

‘The premier satirist of great British crapness is on killer form in this gag-a-minute mystery’ Observer

‘A new Jonathan Coe is always a treat… Coe is a master at exploring the pains of modern life’ The Times

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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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‘Full of energy… a madcap caper, a sideways memoir, a tricky jeu d’esprit that is also a quiet defence of fiction in a post-truth age, and enormous fun to read’ Guardian

‘Deeply pleasurable, and a lot of fun. You emerge from it glowing’ iPaper

‘Fantastic, wickedly funny and gripping. Coe has written a beautifully crafted mystery that dovetails as a sharp, smart, state of the nation’ Simon McCleave

‘I was delighted… it’s clever and political - while also being very funny’ John Self