The Accidental Woman

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

For Maria, nothing is certain. Her life is a chain of accidents. Friendship passes her by, & she's unimpressed by the devoted Ronny & his endless propsals of marriage. Maria lives in a world of her own - yet not of her own making. Stumbling through university, work, marriage & motherhood, she finds it hard to see what all the fuss is about.

Will she ever be able to control the direction of her life? Or will it end, as it began, by accident? What does chance have in store for the accidental woman?

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Jonathan Coe was born in Birmingham in 1961. His novels include Rotters, The Accidental Woman, A Touch of Love, The Dwarves of Death, & What a Carve Up! (aka Testament à l'anglaise), which won the 1995 John Llewellyn Rhys Prize & the French Prix du Meilleur Livre Étranger. The House of Sleep won the Writers' Guild Best Fiction Award for 1997. 

He began writing at an early age. His first surviving story, a detective thriller called The Castle of Mystery, was written when he was eight. His first published novel was The Accidental Woman in 1987, but it was his fourth, What a Carve Up!, that established his reputation as one of England’s finest comic novelists, winning the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize in 1985 & being translated into many languages. Seven bestselling novels & many other awards have followed, including the 2005 Samuel Johnson Prize for Like A Fiery Elephant, a biography of the experimental novelist, B. S. Johnson. Jonathan lives in London with his wife & two daughters.