Bournville

A new state of the nation novel from the bestselling author of Middle England, spanning the huge social change that has taken place in Britain from 1945 to 2020 In the Birmingham suburb of Bournville, a family celebrate VE Day in 1945. With the joy of such an occasion there also come larger national questions about the nature of the horrific war the country has just been through. Following this family through generations as they navigate seventy-five years of drastic social change, from wartime nostalgia and English exceptionalism to the royal family, the World Cup and coronavirus, domestic secrets and national myths leave characters and a country adrift, bewildered and divided. A novel of rare humour and humanity, holding up a mirror reflecting our country, our history and ourselves.

About the Author :
Jonathan Coe was born a few miles from Bournville in 1961. The author of political satires such as What a Carve Up! and Number 11, and family sagas such as The Rotters' Club and The Rain Before It Falls, his novels have won prizes at home and abroad, including Costa Novel of the Year and the Prix du Livre Europeen (both for Middle England).

Review :
With his third novel in four years, Coe is on a roll; he tracks the fortunes of a family through snapshots of communal experiences, from the Queen's coronation through the 1966 World Cup to pandemic lockdown, in a moving, compassionate portrait of individual and national change The way Coe starkly captures the paranoia and fear of the early days of the pandemic is impressive and he has written what he calls a "faithful account" of the death of his mother during lockdown. It makes an intensely affecting finale to a fine novel. Few contemporary writers can make a success of the state of the nation novel: Jonathan Coe is one of them Epic in scope, but personal in resonance Coe's interwoven paeans to the lives of those rooted in the very centre of the UK - The Rotter's Club and Middle England among them - blend comedy, tragedy and social commentary in enjoyably memorable fashion, and his latest, Bournville, is no exception . . . Coe's particular gift is to understand how nostalgia, regret and an apprehension of what the future will bring might make us more, not less, empathetic to the frailties of those around us Very tempting In this affecting generational saga, framed by the pandemic and structured by seven milestone broadcasts, Jonathan Coe - known for his state-of-the-nation novels - once again takes the temperature of Britain At heart Bournville is a novel designed to make you think by making you laugh, and the seriousness of the subject matter is tempered throughout by the author's piercing eye for the more ludicrous elements of human nature A compelling social history that's sprinkled throughout with Coe's inimitable humour, love and white-hot anger A hugely impressive state-of-the-nation tale British novelists love to diagnose the state of the nation. Few do it better than Jonathan Coe, who writes with warmth and subversive glee about social change and the comforting mundanities it imperils This charming read is as warming, rich and comforting as a mug of hot chocolate This is another eminently readable Coe, full of believable characters and fizzing dialogue. And it couldn't be more timely Coe has the great gift of combining engaging human stories with a deeper structural pattern that gives the book its heft

Set in Coe's native
Midlands and told through the
lives of four generations of one
family, beginning with 11-year-old
Mary in 1945, Bournville is a
poignant, clever and witty portrait
of social change and how the
British see themselves.