This is a novel about the hundreds of tiny connections between the public & private worlds & how they affect us all It's about the legacy of war & the end of innocence It's about how comedy & politics are battling it out & comedy might have won It's about how 140 characters can make fools of us all It's about living in a city where bankers need cinemas in their basements & others need food banks down the street It is Jonathan Coe doing what he does best -- showing us how we live now' Coe is among the handful of novelists who can tell us something about the temper of our times' Observer