The bestselling author of Middle England returns with the evocative story of a young woman with a thirst for life and a slighted Hollywood director consumed by the past.
Signed Edition
A standard edition is available here
In the heady summer of 1977, a naive young woman called Calista sets out from Athens to venture into the wider world. On a Greek island that has been turned into a film set, she finds herself working for the famed Hollywood director Billy Wilder, about whom she knows almost nothing. But the time she spends in this glamorous, unfamiliar new life will change her for good.
While Calista is thrilled with her new adventure, Wilder himself is living with the realisation that his star may be on the wane. Rebuffed by Hollywood, he has financed his new film with German money, and when Calista follows him to Munich for the shooting of further scenes, she finds herself joining him on a journey of memory into the dark heart of his family history.
In a novel that is at once a tender coming-of-age story and an intimate portrait of one of cinema's most intriguing figures, Jonathan Coe turns his gaze on the nature of time and fame, of family and the treacherous lure of nostalgia. When the world is catapulting towards change, do you hold on for dear life or decide it's time to let go?
Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd
ISBN: 2928377041168
Number of pages: 320
Dimensions: 222 x 138 mm
Calista, a Geek/ English girl ends up working as an interpreter for Mr Wilder and Iz Diamond on the set of the film ‘Fedora’.
Coe creates a highly interesting contrasting relationship between the two main characters;...
More
Following Coe's political and social look at Brexit in present day Britain, he returns to one of his loves - film.
The story follows the making of Billy Wilder's final film, Fedora: a white elephant of a...
More
To paraphrase Billy Wilder’s thoughts: if everything is going wrong with your life, do you really want to go out to watch a movie called ‘Despair’?
For me, this novel was an absolute delight. I am one of a small...
More
Please sign in to write a review
Would you like to proceed to the App store to download the Waterstones App?