Dr Angus Petworth travels to the small, eastern European country of Slaka. Confusion ensues, in Malcolm Bradbury's entertaining and witty novel.
At first glance, the middle-aged British professor of linguistics (variously called Pitwit, Pervert, and Petwurt by his Soviet-bloc hosts) might seem stuffy. But as soon as he sets out on a lecture tour behind the Iron Curtain and becomes embroiled in a confrontation with a matronly stewardess on the plane, it becomes clear he is on a highly unusual adventure. He continues in this vein, weaving his way through an increasingly chaotic labyrinth of confusion, anxiety - and highly unlikely romance.
Malcolm Bradbury
About the Author
Aged 27, Malcolm Bradbury was in hospital with a serious heart condition that he wasn’t expected to survive. He both survived and used his confinement to write his breakthrough novel, Eating People Is Wrong.