Bournville

Coe's saga tracks one Midlands family across eight decades, using national milestones, VE Day, the coronation, England '66, Brexit, COVID, as connective tissue rather than backdrop. Reviewers noted the book grows angrier as it approaches the present, with Coe's usual comic warmth curdling into open dismay at how thoroughly communal feeling has been hollowed out by opportunist politics. What holds it together isn't plot so much as accumulation: small domestic scenes stand in for the country's mood at each juncture. It's less nostalgic than the title and chocolate-factory setting suggest.