Critics' Opinion:
Readers' rating:
Published Feb 2012
288 pages
Genre: Fantasy, Sci-Fi, Speculative, Alt. History
Publication Information
A hurricane sweeps off the Gulf of Mexico and, in the back-country of Alabama, assembles a passenger jet out of old bean-cans and junkyard waste. An eccentric mathematician - last heard of investigating the physics of free will and ranting about the devil - vanishes in the French Pyrenees. And the thuggish operatives of a multinational arms conglomerate are closing in on Alex Smart - a harmless Cambridge postgraduate who has set off with hope in
his heart and a ring in his pocket to ask his American girlfriend to marry him.
At the Directorate of the Extremely Improbable - an organization so secret that many of its operatives aren't 100 percent sure it exists - Red Queen takes an interest. What ensues is a chaotic chase across an imaginary America, haunted by madness, murder, mistaken identity, and a very large number of unhealthy but delicious snacks. The Coincidence Engine exists. And it has started to work.
Shortlisted for the Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize for Comic Fiction
"Leith does toss conundrums about the universe, solely to see where they will land with maximum comic impact. This is a manic yet paradoxically well-ordered tale, in which coincidence intervenes to secure loose ends in a satisfying fashion." - The Independent (UK)
"A tremendous novel - droll, savvy, original. An invigorating blast of fiction." - William Boyd
"I couldn't stop reading Sam Leith's comic, paranoid romp across America. It's Philip K. Dick meets Evelyn Waugh in a fast-paced satire... I loved its twists and turns and its final, wonderful revelation. If, that is, it was a final revelation..." - Michael Moorcock
"He is a humorist, but, much more than that, a realist; a philosopher, but much more a brilliant reporter. His prose reminds me of the non-experimental James Joyce." - The Spectator (UK)
"At times, The Coincidence Engine reads like a lighthearted imitation of a Thomas Pynchon novel, mixing conspiracy paranoia with Americana and a dash of willful silliness, but without the unhinged wit needed to make it all gel, nor the requisite deep focus on the subject matter... it rises above its silliness – but it's not a million miles off the mark." - The Guardian (UK)
This information about The Coincidence Engine was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Sam Leith writes for many leading publications including the Guardian and the Evening Standard. He is the former Literary Editor of the Telegraph. His previous books, Dead Pets, and Sods Law, have been published to critical acclaim. The Coincidence Engine is his first novel. Sam Leith lives in London.
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