Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Unavailable
    The Coincidence Engine: A Novel
    Unavailable
    The Coincidence Engine: A Novel
    Unavailable
    The Coincidence Engine: A Novel
    Audiobook9 hours

    The Coincidence Engine: A Novel

    Written by Sam Leith

    Narrated by Jonathan Cowley

    3/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this audiobook

    "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.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPenguin Random House Audio
    Release dateFeb 7, 2012
    ISBN9780449011638
    Unavailable
    The Coincidence Engine: A Novel
    Author

    Sam Leith

    Sam Leith is a former Literary Editor of the Daily Telegraph, and contributes regularly to the Evening Standard, Guardian, Wall Street Journal, Spectator and Prospect. He's the author of two nonfiction books: Dead Pets and Sod's Law and a novel, The Coincidence Engine.

    Related to The Coincidence Engine

    Related audiobooks

    Satire For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Local Color

      Jul 30, 2020

      Local Color
      4 min read

    • Article

      Into The Abyss

      Nov 4, 2022

      Into The Abyss
      3 min read

    • Article

      Deliverance Is Seldom: On Cormac McCarthy’s ‘The Passenger’ and ‘Stella Maris’

      Oct 25, 2022

      Sorrow, in 'The Passenger' and 'Stella Maris,' is the likeliest underpinning of reality. The post Deliverance Is Seldom: On Cormac McCarthy’s ‘The Passenger’ and ‘Stella Maris’ appeared first on The Millions.

      11 min read

    • Article

      A Year in Reading: Matt Seidel

      Dec 5, 2020

      I decided to map out new avenues for autofiction writers to explore and new variants for autofiction critics to classify: a handy manual that doubles as my year in reading. The post A Year in Reading: Matt Seidel appeared first on The Millions.

      8 min read

    • Article

      Why Visit America

      Aug 12, 2020

      Why Visit America
      1 min read

    • Article

      Letter From The Collapse

      Jan 7, 2022

      I'm only a writer, and the most recondite type, an essayist. Could there by any role for something so insular at the end of the world? The post Letter from the Collapse appeared first on The Millions.

      14 min read

    • Article

      Wakanda Whenever? Black To The Afro-future

      Feb 28, 2018

      Wakanda forever! No, I'm not talking about Wauconda, the Illinois town whose switchboard recently has lit up with prank calls seeking the home of comic book hero "Black Panther." I'm talking about Wakanda, the fictitious African home of the black sup

      3 min read

    • Article

      Double Punch

      Sep 19, 2022

      The last time we had a new novel from Cormac McCarthy, Enron and JonBenet Ramsey were in the headlines, more than a hundred thousand U.S. troops were in Iraq, the University of Alabama football team was eking out a losing season, and a hundred millio

      3 min read

    • Article

      ‘The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store’ Weaves A Tale Of Love And Community

      Oct 12, 2023

      James McBride, one of today’s great American novelists, cares about his characters. In a recent episode of “The New Yorker Radio Hour” podcast, the award-winning author professed that he’s not someone who “creates characters, and runs them up a tree,

      2 min read

    • Article

      Tuesday New Release Day: Starring Clarke, Akhtar, Nemerever, and More

      Sep 15, 2020

      Our own Thomas Beckwith takes a look at the notable books publishing this week. The post Tuesday New Release Day: Starring Clarke, Akhtar, Nemerever, and More appeared first on The Millions.

      4 min read

    • Article

      Sympathy for the Con Man

      Mar 20, 2017

      Sympathy for the Con Man
      7 min read

    • Article

      The 10 Best Books Of 2019

      Dec 4, 2019

      The 10 Best Books Of 2019
      6 min read

    • Article

      A Year in Reading: Ed Simon

      Dec 5, 2021

      Each of these books taxonomizes the passing of anything that even remotely looked like it could be described naively as the "American Dream." The post A Year in Reading: Ed Simon appeared first on The Millions.

      19 min read

    • Article

      Ten Must-Read Crime Books Set in the American West

      Dec 27, 2019

      This list of must-read crime titles forms part of a lesser-known West, an awesomely weird landscape in which the line between Good and Evil shimmers like a mirage. The post Ten Must-Read Crime Books Set in the American West appeared first on The Mill

      4 min read

    Reviews for The Coincidence Engine

    3/5

    22 ratings2 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 3/5
      There is a really interesting novel waiting to get out here. Its just a shame that there is so much confusion all over the place. I lost coutn of the amount of times that I had to reread pasages to remember characters of their actions. Mayb this says more about me than the author but to be honest the sci-fi aspect which felt like it could have developed into an interesting climax kind of got lost with the farcical runnin around of the characters.
    • 3/5
      This is a moderately fast paced urban SF thriller. Around the world a series of strange events has been happening, all driven by a device call the Coincidence Engine.

      These events come to the attention of the Directorate of the Extremely Improbably, headed by a strange figure called the Red Queen. They, and other organisations are trying to track a guy called Alex who is thought to be carrying the device. As the net closes in on Alex the people tracking him start to bump into each other; and bump each other off. Meanwhile Alex is unaware that he is being tracked, as having delivered his package, he is trying to meet up with his girlfriend to propose to her. As the story reaches its conclusion, more coincidences happen, before the deflated ending drops into place.

      Mostly I enjoyed this, it didn’t understand the sub plot with the creator of the Coincidence Engine, didn’t really fit with anything else going on with the story. Whilst the book was well written, it didn’t seem to add up, for example why Alex drove across the states, to meet up with this American girl. I felt that it could have had more complexity and more coincidences to fit with the title. I like the spy / agency part, but Charles Stross has done this better in the Laundry Files series.