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The Coincidence Authority
- Type
- Book
- By
- J. W. Ironmonger
- Publisher
- Weidenfeld & Nicolson
- Source
- Weidenfeld & Nicolson
- Published
- 2013
A novel about a man who studies coincidence for a living and the woman whose life seems to be one long, impossible coincidence. Fiction, but it gets the ideas right.
J. W. Ironmonger's novel The Coincidence Authority (2013) is the only work of fiction on this shelf, and it earns the place. It tells of a statistician who studies coincidence for a living and a woman whose life seems to be one long, impossible run of them.
Fiction can carry the emotional weight of coincidence better than any study, because it happens to someone you care about. It also carries a quiet lesson: the coincidences here are engineered by an author, a reminder that meaning can be written in after the fact. It is the ideal companion read after the nonfiction has made you think.
The meaning
Fiction can carry the emotional weight of coincidence better than any study, and this one takes the phenomenon seriously.
The skeptic
It is a novel — the coincidences are engineered by an author, which is the perfect reminder that meaning can be written in after the fact.
About the author
British novelist. The Coincidence Authority is his second novel, about a statistician of coincidence and the woman who defies him.
Key takeaways
- A novel, not a study: a statistician of coincidence meets a woman who defies the odds.
- Uses fiction to explore whether meaning is found or made.
- A good companion read after the nonfiction on this shelf.