Armed only with a counterfeit 100-Euro note, Ajatashatru the fakir, renowned con
jurer and trickster, lands in Paris. His mission? To acquire a splendid new bed
of nails. His destination? IKEA.
And there he decides to stay, finding an obl
iging wardrobe in which to lay his head.
Only when he emerges from his slumbe
r does he discover that he is locked in, unable to free himself and heading for
England in the back of a truck.
So begins a magnificent and bizarre adventure
for the intrepid fakir. Even while he flees the revenge-crazed taxi driver whom
he conned on his arrival, and falls further in love with Marie RiviÇùre, the Pa
risian beauty whom he tricked into lunching with him, he finds time to befriend
a group of Sudanese immigrants, travel to Italy in a suitcase, write a novel on
a shirt, and fly to Libya in a hot air balloon.
Witty, moving, surprising and
joyful, this novel reminds us that heroism abounds, and is to be found in the m
ost unlikely of places.
