The Proof of My Innocence

By: Jonathan Coe

Narrated by: Sam Woolf, Alana Maria, Charlotte Worthing, Mark Stobbart, Roy McMillan

Brought to you by Penguin.

Post-university life doesn’t suit Phyl. Time passes slowly, living with her parents and working a zero-hours contract at Heathrow Airport, while her budding plans of becoming a writer are going nowhere.

That is, until family friend Chris comes to stay. He’s been investigating a radical think tank, founded at Cambridge University in the 1980s, that’s been scheming to push the British government in an ever more extreme direction. When he follows this story to a conference in a rambling old hotel deep in the Cotswolds, events take a bizarre and sinister turn. Soon he is caught up in a world of cryptic clues, secret passages and, eventually, murder.

In the end, despite the efforts of a suitably eccentric detective, it falls to Phyl herself – ably assisted by Chris’s outspoken adopted daughter Rashida - to look for answers to the fatal mystery. But will they lie in contemporary politics, or in a literary enigma that is almost forty years old?

'A brilliant, shrewd, satirical novel – gimlet-eyed, funny, very clever and a searchingly profound look at the state of this strange country of ours' William Boyd

'My comfort read: anything by Jonathan Coe' Bob Mortimer

'Coe shows an understanding of this country that goes beyond what most cabinet ministers can muster . . . he is a master of satire but pokes fun subtly, without ever being cruel, biting or blatant . . . his light, funny writing makes you feel better' Evening Standard

'A novelist who gains in range and reputation with every book' Pat Barker

'Please, God … if there’s a next life, let me write as well as Jonathan Coe' Anthony Bourdain

'Probably the best English novelist of his generation' Nick Hornby

©2024 Jonathan Coe (P)2024 Penguin Audio

Critic reviews

Wonderfully accomplished and darkly funny. The Proof of My Innocence is a murder mystery, a satire on Britain's ever right-ward drift, culminating in Liz Truss; and an inquiry into truth and perception. Jonathan Coe gets better and better (Luke Harding)

A brilliant, shrewd, satirical novel – gimlet-eyed, funny, very clever and a searchingly profound look at the state of this strange country of ours. (William Boyd)

The premier satirist of great British crapness is on killer form in this gag-a-minute mystery - who but Coe would think to structure a book around the abysmal transport police mantra “See It. Say It. Sorted”?

A funny, smart and innovative exploration of contemporary British political dynamics (Nussaibah Younis)

A wonderfully farcical and absurd book that puts into perspective the political chaos of post-Brexit Britain

Coe is on engaging form… satiric and entertaining brio

Full of energy... a madcap caper, a sideways memoir, a tricksy jeu d’esprit that is also a quiet defence of fiction in a post-truth age, and enormous fun to read

Deeply pleasurable, and a lot of fun. You emerge from it glowing (iPaper)

A new Jonathan Coe is always a treat . . . Coe is a master at exploring the pains of modern life (Rosamund Urwin)

Endlessly satisfying