Critics' Opinion:
Readers' rating:
Published Sep 2014
288 pages
Genre: Literary Fiction
Publication Information
Handsome, unassuming Thomas Foley is an employee at the Central Office of Information whose particular biography (Belgian mother, pub-owning father) makes him just the man to oversee the "authentic British pub" that will be erected at the 1958 Brussels World's Fair. It's the first major expo after World War II, meant to signify unity, but there's inevitable intrigue involving the U.S. and Soviet delegations. In the shadow of an immense, imposingly modern structure called the Atomium, the married Foley becomes both agent and pawn—when he's not falling head over heels for Anneke, his Belgian hostess.
Funny, fast-paced, and genuinely moving, Expo 58 is both a perfect evocation of a moment in history and the welcome return of one of today's finest novelists.
"Coe is a gifted satirist…a droll, clever novel that ends on a bittersweet note…impressive" - Publishers Weekly
"Starred Review. Like the best books of this kind, Expo 58 is funny and smart…a light, blessedly short, dry English satire." - Booklist
"Expo 58 is Coe at his funny-serious best, offering idiosyncratic mixture of slapstick and profundity in a love-and-spies story set at the height of the cold war…pure enjoyment." - Financial Times (UK)
"Brilliant and satisfying… This is entertainment of a very high order, and all the more delightful for being grounded in the more bizarre dimensions of reality, the inspiration of all the best fiction." - The Guardian (UK)
"Delightfully funny and utterly absurd…tremendously good fun." - The Spectator (UK)
"A rich and splendidly comic confection." - The Independent (UK)
This information about Expo 58 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.
Copyright Viking Publishing.
Jonathan Coe was born in 1961 in Lickey, a suburb of south-west Birmingham. His first novel, The Accidental Woman was published in 1987. His best-selling novels include What a Carve Up! and The Rotters' Club (2001). He is the recipient of many prizes and awards, including both Costa Novel of the Year and Prix du Livre Européen. He won France's Prix Médicis for The House of Sleep and Italy's Premio Flaiano and Premio Bauer-Ca' Foscari.
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