The Terrible Privacy of Maxwell Sim

by Jonathan Coe

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 though he has 74 friends on Facebook. He's not even sure whether he's got a job until suddenly a strange business proposition comes his way which involves a long journey to the Shetland Isles - and a voyage into his family's past which throws up some surprising revelations.
Jonathan Coe's new book is 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. Yet as he delves into his family history he manages to find the resources to survive.

(From Publisher).

Jonathan Coe was born in Birmingham in 1961. He has written eight novels: The Accidental Woman, A Touch of Love, The Dwarves of Death, What a Carve Up! (which won the 1995 John Llewellyn Rhys Prize), The House of Sleep (which won the 1998 Prix Médicis Etranger), The Rotters' Club (winner of the Everyman Wodehouse Prize), The Closed Circle and The Rain Before It Falls. His biography of the novelist B.S. Johnson, Like a Firey Elephant, won the 2005 Samuel Johnson Prize for best non-fiction book of the year. He lives in London with his wife and two daughters.

A thoroughly enjoyable read. It captured the modern world and its alienating qualities.

Ironical novel. The story of a "loser" who never feels sorry for himself. Very British humour. Unexpected ending.