At the Tomb of the Inflatable Pig: Travels through Paraguay

Description

The beguiling Paraguayans are despised and feared by their neighbours but adore Britain (hundreds volunteered to fight for Britain in the Falklands War), have a taste for soccer and, when the Vice-President is murdered, they call in Scotland Yard. This title is part history and part travelogue.

Although this is his first book, John Gimlette is already well established as a travel journalist, having won the Shiva Naipaul Memorial Prize for an essay which has led to this book, and the Wanderlust Travel Writing Award. He writes regularly for the Telegraph. When not deep in the jungles of Paraguay he practises as a barrister in London. He is currently writing his second book, Theatre of Fish- Travels through Newfoundland and Labrador.

A glorious travel book - Edward Marriot * The Sunday Times * [Gimlette's] account is so rich in anecdotes, so suffused in color and dialect that we are left with a sense of having somehow inhaled all this Paraguayan history and then experienced it through a nightmare or a dream. Gimlette has given us a cast of characters as vivid as any by Dickens or Waugh * New York Times * Full of surprises, this is a riveting read * Sunday Telegraph * Off the wall title, and a great off centre enjoyment, with a smashing, entertaining piece of writing... * Manchester Evening News * John Gimlette's extraordinary book, part history, part travelogue, is so vivid that nobody reading it is ever likely to forget the country. - Max Davidson * Daily Telegraph *