Summary of Expo 58
“Expo 58” is a humorous Cold War novel and love story, set against the backdrop of the 1958 World’s Fair in Brussels – the first since the Second World War and the largest of the twentieth century. Despite Cold War tensions, nations from around the globe gathered beneath the futuristic Atomium to celebrate progress and modernity. The novel follows Thomas Foley, an English civil servant who is unhappy in his marriage and is sent to Brussels to keep an eye on the meetings and conversations at the British pub at the fair. He meets Anneke, a Flemish Expo hostess, and Emily, an American actress looking for adventure, and soon finds himself caught in a complicated love triangle and an increasingly absurd web of Cold War espionage.
Reasons to read Expo 58
“Expo 58” is a witty Cold War novel that captures the optimism of the 1950s, embodied by the 1958 World’s Fair. It skilfully combines British humour, Belgian absurdism, romance, suspense, and recent history. Jonathan Coe is one of Britain’s most celebrated contemporary novelists, known for his sharp satirical writing style. His best-known works include “The Rotters’ Club” (winner of the 2001 Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize) and “Middle England” (winner of both the European Book Prize and the Costa Book Award for Novel in 2019).
Setting: Brussels (Belgium)
Mainly Brussels (the Expo 58 grounds around the Atomium at the Heizel/Heysel); also Tooting (London) and Wijgmaal (near Leuven).
Original title: Expo 58
Year of publication: 2013
Nr of pages: 288
