- Published: 19 January 2021
- ISBN: 9780241454664
- Imprint: Viking
- Format: Hardback
- Pages: 256
- RRP: $55.00
Mr Wilder and Me
- Published: 19 January 2021
- ISBN: 9780241454664
- Imprint: Viking
- Format: Hardback
- Pages: 256
- RRP: $55.00
A coming of age story which offers a fascinating insight into fame - and the perils of an industry in flux
Daily Telegraph
A satisfyingly sweeping novel that still manages to push the form in new directions. As good as anything he's written - a novel to cherish
Observer
Effortlessly pleasurable and deceptively simple. Mr Wilder & Me doesn't lack resonance, yet stays light on its feet. The whole book feels like some marvellous party where you ricochet from one good conversation to another
The Times
The dialogue's sharp, the comic timing excellent
Sunday Times
One of my favourite writers . . . a thoughtful tender read
Good Housekeeping
A beautiful, bittersweet novel that is itself crying out for the silver screen treatment . . . sheer delight
Scotsman
This is a charming, bittersweet book, and a perfect reminder of art's value in stark times
Spectator
Absolutely wonderful
Nigella Lawson
This elegiac novella is utterly charming, deeply poignant and ultimately uplifting. And yes, it would make a great film
Mail on Sunday
A tender portrait. Coe's close-up on Wilder doesn't just celebrate the man but embodies his glorious ability to say sad things in a funny way, and vice versa
Daily Telegraph
Elegantly brings together Calista's and Wilder's worlds
TLS
A love letter to the spirit of cinema
Guardian
An account of Billy Wilder's later years that sweeps beautifully from Hollywood to Greece and London while all the time reflecting on the horrors of 20th-century Europe
FT, Best Books of 2020
An engaging exploration of the fleeting nature of fame
i News, 50 best books for Christmas 2020
Knowledgeably enthralled by cinema, Jonathan Coe has often spliced it inventively into his fiction. This richly enjoyable novel is entirely devoted to it. The career of one of Hollywood's greatest directors is unrolled with wit and enthusiasm tinged with melancholy
The Sunday Times Best Fiction Books of the Year
A book more loving towards its readers or its subject is hard to imagine
John Self, The Critic
History meets fiction in this absorbing read . . . A nostalgic look at a girl coming of age and a man dealing with age, evocatively written
Woman's Own
Coe's charming, bittersweet novel fictionalises director Billy Wilder's wilderness years; shunned by Hollywood, he films Fedora in Greece, befriending a Greek woman (the novel's narrator).
Daily Telegraph
A nostalgic, atmospheric coming-of-age story
Mail on Sunday
Shit hot
Bob Mortimer
Mr Wilder and Me has considerable charm and Wilder-like slightness and levity of spirit
Literary Review