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  • Published: 27 August 2014
  • ISBN: 9780241967775
  • Imprint: Penguin General UK
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 352
  • RRP: $35.00

The Terrible Privacy Of Maxwell Sim





A lonely toothbrush salesman goes on a journey into the wilderness and a descent into a mad world, in this comic and surreal novel from one of our greatest British writers

Maxwell Sim seems to have hit rock bottom: separated from his wife and daughter, estranged from his father, and with no one to confide in even with 74 friends on Facebook. He's not even sure whether he's got a job until suddenly a strange business proposition comes his way, involving a long journey to the Shetland Isles - and a voyage into his family's past which throws up some surprising revelations.

A story for our times, Maxwell finds himself at sea in the modern world, surrounded by social networks but unable to relate properly to anyone.

  • Published: 27 August 2014
  • ISBN: 9780241967775
  • Imprint: Penguin General UK
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 352
  • RRP: $35.00

About the author

Jonathan Coe

Jonathan Coe was born in Birmingham in 1961. His novels include Rotters, The Accidental Woman, A Touch of Love, The Dwarves of Death and What a Carve Up!, which won the 1995 John Llewellyn Rhys Prize and the French Prix du Meilleur Livre Itranger.The House of Sleep won the Writers' Guild Best Fiction Award for 1997.

Jonathan Coe was born in Birmingham, UK, in 1961. He began writing at an early age. His first surviving story, a detective thriller called The Castle of Mystery, was written when he was eight. His first published novel was The Accidental Woman in 1987, but it was his fourth, What a Carve Up!, that established his reputation as one of England’s finest comic novelists, winning the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize in 1985 and being translated into many languages. Seven bestselling novels and many other awards have followed, including the 2005 Samuel Johnson Prize for Like A Fiery Elephant, a biography of the experimental novelist, B. S. Johnson. Jonathan lives in London with his wife and two daughters.

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