{"product_id":"2026200015823-secondhand-the-coup","title":"The Coup","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eCondition remarks:\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBook: Good\u003cbr\u003eJacket: Very good\u003cbr\u003ePages: Good\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn the sun-scorched, famine-ravaged nation of Kush — a fictional sub-Saharan African state — Colonel Hakim Félix Ellelloû, a devout Muslim and fiercely anti-American head of state, narrates his own increasingly desperate grip on power in John Updike's richly imagined political novel, The Coup. Published in 1978, this singular work chronicles the Colonel's ideological contradictions as he rails against Western consumerism while his own people starve, and his regime fractures under the weight of corruption, rebellion, and his own fractured psyche.\n\nUpdike, celebrated for his precise, luminous prose, here turns his formidable literary gifts to a grand satirical canvas, skewering Cold War geopolitics, post-colonial African identity, and the absurdity of ideological dogma with equal measures of wit and compassion. The Coup stands as one of the most audacious departures in Updike's career — a writer famed for suburban American realism venturing boldly into a world of desert landscapes and revolutionary fervour, producing a narrative whose dark comedy and philosophical depth reward the most discerning reader. Will Ellelloû's fervent vision for Kush survive his own contradictions, or is every revolution ultimately undone by the man who leads it?\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Secondhand Stock","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":49203221823707,"sku":"2026200015823-SECONDHAND","price":15.0,"currency_code":"AUD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0523\/7646\/9701\/files\/4d5a3532-eb02-43f9-8d23-ebcbfb8f5018.png?v=1788146041","url":"https:\/\/bookgrocer.com\/products\/2026200015823-secondhand-the-coup","provider":"Book Grocer","version":"1.0","type":"link"}