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Coincidence Engine

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About this listen

 “A tremendous novel—droll, savvy, original. An invigorating blast of fiction.”
—William Boyd, Author of Any Human Heart and Restless.”

A hurricane sweeps off the Gulf of Mexico and, in the back country of Alabama, assembles a passenger jet out of old bean cans and junkyard waste. This piques the interest of the enigmatic Directorate of the Extremely Improbable. Their fascination with this random event sets into motion a madcap caper that will bring together a hilarious cast of characters, including: an eccentric mathematician, last heard of investigating the physics of free will; a lovelorn Cambridge postgraduate who has set off to America with a ring in his pocket and hope in his heart; and a member of the Directorate with no capacity for imagination. What ensues is a chaotic chase across a fully realized, hyper-real America, haunted by madness, murder, mistaken identity, and conspiracy. The Coincidence Engine is a lively, boisterous debut that heralds the arrival of a major new talent. Action & Adventure Genre Fiction Literary Fiction Literature & Fiction Metaphysical & Visionary Satire Fiction Comedy Witty Heartfelt

Critic reviews

“A comic caper. . . . Pitched somewhere between the heartbreaking pitfalls of Jonathan Coe and the paranoid zaniness of Thomas Pynchon, this is a clever debut, well worth checking out.” — Sunday Times

“Witty and inventive, like something out of Hitchcock by way of Carl Hiassen, this tale of mayhem, murder and mistaken identity is a hugely entertaining, freewheeling riff on the paranoid, conspiracy driven American psyche.” —The Mail on Sunday

“Blending elements of a road novel, a spy thriller and a philosophical inquiry into the nature of chance, it is gripping, funny and unsettling.” —Financial Times

“The silliness multiplies across Sam Leith’s pages like fractal rainbows. . . . Anarchic, psychedelic, with a serious delight in paradox. . . . For [Leith], silliness is not camouflage but its opposite: a tantalizing surface that attracts attention and draws it very much deeper.” —The Guardian

“A novel of ideas. . . . Sam Leith [writes] with admirable imaginative stamina, helped along by sharply observed and entertaining writing.” —Independent

“A comic thriller that, in its deliberate daftness, shows how disturbing daftness can be when taken to extremes.” —Times Literary Supplement
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Most relevant
The story has a great premise and starts off well, but the plot sags a lot towards the middle and end. I get the impression that the author wasn't entirely sure whether he was aiming for quirky humour in the vein of Douglas Adams or a more serious novel with deeper philosophical themes, and as a consequence doesn't quite hit either mark, resulting in a confusing story that's tonally all over the place. Nevertheless there are some interesting concepts here even if many are underdeveloped, and it's a moderately entertaining read.

Unfortunately, the Audible narration is dreadful and really lets the book down. The narrator's voice isn't suited to the narrative style, the acting during dialogue sections is terrible, and American characters constantly switch between (a very poor imitation of) a US accent and a British one, often mid-sentence. Several parts I felt would have been funny or clever had I not been too distracted by the narration to be able to appreciate them as much as they deserved. Get a physical or ebook version instead so you can enjoy the story properly.

Okay story, TERRIBLE narration

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