Description
Book Synopsis''Crazy, charming, a delight'' - John le Carré
In Rory MacLean''s groundbreaking debut travel book, Winston the pig drops on to Uncle Peter''s head and kills him dead. Unwilling to be left alone in her house Aunt Zita, a faded Austrian aristocrat and a vivacious eccentric, hijacks her nephew and, together with Winston, sets out on one last ride. The Berlin Wall has fallen only weeks before and Zita is determined to reach across the reopened borders and rediscover her remarkable east European family. In a rattling Trabant the unlikely trio puff and wheeze across the changing continent, following the threads of memory. Zita''s relations - the angel of Prague, the Hungarian grave digger who buried Stalin''s nose, a dying Romanian propagandist - help tie together the loose ends of her life. They picnic at Auschwitz. They meet Lenin''s embalmer. They carry a long-lost corpse over the Carpathian mountains. Through war and revolution, decay and regeneration, Stalin''s Nose
Trade Review
Crazy, charming, a delight. -- John le Carré
Rory MacLean is one of the most strikingly original and talented travel writers of our generation. -- Katie Hickman
A minor masterpiece of comic surrealism. * The Times *
The most extraordinary debut in travel writing since "In Patagonia". A dark, sardonic and brilliant book which grows in stature with every page. -- William Dalrymple
As an allegory it is powerful and frequently moving. As a tale it is tremendous fun. It is also a thing of beauty. -- Jan Morris
There is pathos - and adventure - in spades... Stalin's Nose is an essential companion for anyone travelling to a part of the world still recovering from the horrors of the giant confidence trick that was communism. -- Justin Marozzi * Financial Times *
It is a painful book of bitter old ages, or lives which have had their meanings repeatedly declared void. It is very hard and very good. * Guardian *
A Gogolesque tour in a Trabant: eccentric, amusing and chilling. * The Economist *
The wittiest, most surreal travel writing of recent years. -- Frank Delaney
The best book I've read for a long time. -- John Wells
Table of Contents
Preface by Colin Thurbron If Pigs Could Fly Germany Let Us Eat Bananas Czechoslovakia The Angel of Prague Rooms of Memory The End of Europe Hungary Shadows of History Little Kings The Moon was Young Poland Picnic at Auschwitz May Day Parody Field of Faith Romania Man thinks, God laughs Riding with the Best Man Words Words Words Moscovy Communism and Constipation A Pig in the Hand About the Author Other books by Rory MacLean
