Sparkles with all the acuity of his best novels . . . Uproarious and always on-the-money, Evening Standard, Books of the Year, on Middle England

A comedy for our times, Guardian, on Middle England

Coe's back with a bang, Daily Telegraph, on Middle England

Very funny. Coe is a writer of uncommon decency, Observer, on Middle England

The book everyone is talking about, The Times, on Middle England

A full-blooded state of the nation novel, Sunday Times, on Middle England

Brilliantly funny . . . a compelling state of the nation novel, full of light and shade, which vividly charts modern Britain's tragicomic slide , Economist, on Middle England


In the heady summer of 1977, a naive 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?