Mr. Wilder and Me - by Jonathan Coe (Hardcover)

About the Book

In the summer of 1977, a young woman named Calista finds work on famed Hollywood director Billy Wilder's film set. The filming takes them to Munich, where Wilder grapples with his family history. This tender and intimate novel examines the nature of time and fame, of family, and of the treacherous lure of nostalgia.

Book Synopsis

A NEW YORK TIMES EDITORS' CHOICE

FROM THE AWARD-WINNING AUTHOR OF THE ROTTERS' CLUB AND MIDDLE ENGLAND

In the heady summer of 1977, a naïve 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 realization 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?

"Outstanding... In a sense, the novel toward which Coe's fiction has always been heading."--Los Angeles Review of Books

Review Quotes

"Not a romantic love story, but something more tender and rare: a charming, ironic fairy tale about an accidental, intergenerational friendship... A gem of a novel."--Washington Post

★ "Beautifully written and full of wisdom, this unusual and fascinating book contains many treats... If you love novels set in the world of moviemaking, this is as good as the best of them."--Kirkus Reviews (Starred Review)

"English author Coe (Middle England) offers a witty elegy for the last gasp of old Hollywood....Coe brings great sympathy to his touching depiction of an older artist fighting to remain relevant. Coe's fans will fall for this one."--Publishers Weekly

"Outstanding... In a sense, Mr. Wilder and Me is the novel toward which Coe's fiction has always been heading."--Los Angeles Review of Books

"A beautifully elegiac novel... One of the best movie-set novels, it sticks closely to the facts but turns them into an elegant, melancholy reflection on Wilder's escape from Germany, his return to Berlin, and the troubled production of his late-career film maudit."--A. S. Hamrah, Bookforum

"Beautifully written and filled with compassion, humor and an abundance of knowledge about old Hollywood, Mr. Wilder and Me sheds light on lives that aren't perfect but still well lived."--Bookpage

"Life-affirming, genuinely affecting, sublime, Mr. Wilder and Me is a joy to read."--NOW Toronto

"Part Hollywood biopic, part Holocaust memoir, part middle-class domestic drama. What holds [Mr. Wilder and Me] together is the hard kernel of historical fact at its core."--The New York Times Book Review

"Coe has worked wonders and produced one of the finest novels of his career... It chronicles an evocative and formative summer, and it serves up a captivating portrait of an artist... this one is a delight."--Washington Examiner

"It's just a really warm and wonderful and fun and happy book, you love the characters and you have this big sigh of satisfaction when you finish it."--NPR WSOR

"A gauzy, glittery and wistful paean to two of Old Hollywood's brightest bulbs as well as a disarmingly frank look at the way status can unjustly diminish with age."--Shelf Awareness

"Satisfyingly sweeping...among Coe's best...A love letter to the spirit of cinema."--The Guardian

"A warm and funny coming-of-age tale."--Christopher Schobert, The Film Stage

"An account of Billy Wilder's later years that sweeps beautifully from Hollywood to Greece and London while all the time reflecting on the horrors of 20th-century Europe."--Financial Times (Best Books of the Year)

"This elegiac novella is utterly charming, deeply poignant and ultimately uplifting."--Mail on Sunday

"A satisfyingly sweeping novel that still manages to push the form in new directions. As good as anything he's written--a novel to cherish."--Observer

"Brilliantly funny."--The Economist

"Superb."--The Times

"Very, very funny."--Stylist

"Knowledgeably enthralled by cinema, Jonathan Coe has often spliced it inventively into his fiction. This richly enjoyable novel is entirely devoted to it. The career of one of Hollywood's greatest directors is unrolled with wit and enthusiasm tinged with melancholy."--The Sunday Times (Best Fiction Books of the Year)

"One of my favourite writers...a thoughtful, tender read."--Good Housekeeping

"A beautiful, bittersweet novel that is itself crying out for the silver screen treatment...sheer delight."--Scotsman

"A tender portrait. Coe's close-up on Wilder doesn't just celebrate the man but embodies his glorious ability to say sad things in a funny way, and vice versa."--Daily Telegraph

"History meets fiction in this absorbing read...A nostalgic look at a girl coming of age and a man dealing with age, evocatively written."--Woman's Own

"Mr. Wilder and Me is a homage to the great film director and producer, Billy Wilder...Cinephiles will find this account a diverting companion."--New York Journal of Books