Dr Ragab's Universal Language

by Robert Twigger

Overview

The power of the mind should never be underestimated

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780330506281
Publisher:	Pan Macmillan
Publication date:	12/10/2010
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	272
File size:	526 KB
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Robert Twigger is an explorer and the author of numerous books, including The Extinction Club, Real Men Eat Puffer Fish, and Angry White Pyjamas, for which he won the Somerset Maugham and William Hill Sports Book of the Year awards. In addition to writing books, he has contributed to Esquire, Lonely Planet Magazine, and Maxim.

Editorial Reviews

In the beginning of this frustratingly vague novel by the author of Angry White Pajamas, a British narrator obsessed with bunkers is hired to write a history of a German aluminum company and is given a manuscript written by Martin Hertwig, the son of the company’s founder. In it, Hertwig claims to have been imprisoned in a bunker by former prisoners of the Reich at the end of WWII; to survive, he recalls the lessons of his mentor, Dr. Ragab, creator of ”The Universal Language.” The story then flashes back to Cairo after WWI, where Hertwig, a recovering veteran wounded on the Western Front, falls under the enigmatic Ragab’s spell and discovers the benefits of the universal language, such as the ability to become invisible. Hertwig’s narrative is punctuated by the narrator’s asides as he reads the manuscript, and details of his more humdrum life in Ealing, which includes battling his rival for the girl of his dreams. In the end, he travels to Cairo to find out how much of Hertwig’s story is true. The Hertwig-Ragab relationship is reminiscent of the Daniel–Mr. Miyagi dynamic from The Karate Kid and grows tedious. And although individual sections of the book are fascinating, the stories-within-stories structure doesn’t cohere in a way that makes the journey from Ealing to Germany to Cairo entirely worthwhile. (Dec.)

Publishers Weekly

"Mixes Paulo Coehlo with The English Patient. An unlikely combination but, magically, it works." —Financial Times

"Absurdly entertaining . . . Coehlo springs to mind, but also Denis Diderot, Jonathan Swift, or Herman Hesse." —Guardian



"Beautifully written, this is a modern-day fable, a fantastic tale of history and humanity, full of observations and ideas to be savored."—Booklist

From the Publisher