The Accidental Woman is a wickedly funny novel from bestseller Jonathan Coe

For Maria, nothing is certain. Her life is a chain of accidents. Untouched by friendship, unimpressed by devoted Ronny and his endless marriage proposals, she lives in a world of her own, but not of her own making. Even as she stumbled on through university, work, marriage and motherhood, Maria finds it hard to see what all the fuss is about.

Will our heroine ever be able to control the direction of her life, or will it end, as it began, by accident? What does chance next have in store for her?

From the author of the award-winning The Rotters'' Club and What a Carve Up!, The Accidental Woman will be enjoyed by readers of Nick Hornby and William Boyd and centres on a quirky and highly individual woman who is still struggling to find her place in life.

''The Accidental Woman has a cocky individual voice of its own. . . here''s precocious, rebellious talent'' Mail on Sunday

''Slyly parodies the clichés of most first novels'' Guardian

''A convincing stuffy of the random impetuses by which human lives tend to be governed. It is also very funny'' Spectator

Jonathan Coe''s novels are filled with biting social commentary, moving and astute observations of life and hilarious set pieces that have made him one of the most popular writers of his generation. His other titles, What a Carve Up! (winner of the 1995 John Llewellyn Rhys Prize), A Touch of Love, The Rotters'' Club (winner of the Everyman Wodehouse prize), The Closed Circle, The Terrible Privacy of Maxwell Sim, The House of Sleep (winner of the1998 Prix Médicis Étranger), and The Rain Before it Falls, are all available in Penguin paperback.