xAn ingeniously plotted beautifully written and hugely enjoyable book that raises tricky questions about our need for heroes and the price of personal compromisex--The Daily Telegraph For the first time since his much-beloved tale Hemingways Chair was published in Michael Palin pens a new novel featuring the warm and witty story of an everyman a tantalizing offer a journey to India and the search for the truth Keith Mabbut is at a crossroads in his life A professional writer of some repute he has reached the age of fifty-six with nothing resembling the success of his two great literary heroes George Orwell and Albert Camus When he is offered the opportunity of a lifetime--to write the biography of the elusive Hamish Melville a widely respected and highly influential activist and humanitarian--he seizes the chance to write something meaningful His search to find out the real story behind the legend takes Mabbut to the lush landscapes and environmental hotspots of India The more he discovers about Melville the more he admires him--and the more he connects with an idealist who wanted to make a difference But is his quarry really who he claims to be As Keith discovers the truth can be whatever we make it In this wonderful heartwarming novel Michael Palin turns his considerable skills to fiction in the story of an ordinary man on an extraordinary adventurexPalins book is well paced his prose carefully hewn his characters fully developed and convincingly human And his comic timing is impeccablex --The Washington Post on Hemingways ChairxThis books strengths are its dry deftly understated wit its careful plot and character construction its clever on-the-money dialogue Those pleasures carry you a long wayx --The New York Times Book Review on Hemingways Chair.
