The Rotter's Club is a dense portrait of an era – 1970s England – told through the lives of several boys attending a private school and their families.
Coe covers a lot of ground in this novel including all the marks of the age: bombings, strikes, political extremes, and punk rock as well as the markers of a young person's life: belief, romance, affairs and, in one of the most interesting side plots, a young woman's disappearance and possible death.
The work is broad, but never feels disjointed even as it uses many different techniques and voices. This book was a big deal when it was released in England, winning several awards, garnering a sequel, and being adapted as a miniseries.
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