Book description
Charlatan. Guru. Master of disguise. Ahead of his time, wise beyond his
years, a simple opportunist or the great pretender; however you choose
to see him, one fact is certain: Dr Ragab is a mysterious man. Talked
about by pretty much everyone in 1920s Cairo, only a few get the chance
to make his acquaintance, and fewer still -- one person, in fact -- get
to study his life lessons. Hertwig is that lucky soul. Or not so lucky,
perhaps: not when he finds himself, at the very end of the second world
war, imprisoned in a bunker by a gang of thugs. And yet . . . there is a
possible way out. Not in the conventional sense, it's true, but when
you're holed up several feet underground, unsure of how long your
captors plan to keep you alive, convention isn't necessarily a good
thing, as Dr Ragab would be the first to proclaim -- and it's his
Universal Language that may just provide Hertwig with the escape route
he needs. As unconventional as the eponymous Ragab, Robert Twigger's
novel takes the reader on a surreal journey from Ealing to Egypt, via
Germany. Clever, funny and thought-provoking, Dr Ragab's Universal
Language is, in every sense, beyond belief: part tall tale and part
self-help manual, it is, like Dr R himself, impossible to pin down --
or, indeed, to put down. 'Part Boy's Own adventure, part magical mystery
tour' Metro 'Wonderfully inventive and entertaining' The Times 'Mixes
Paulo Coehlo with The English Patient. An unlikely combination but,
magically, it works' Financial Times
Robert Twigger is the author of several previous books including
Angry White Pyjamas, which won both the Somerset Maugham and
William Hill awards. He is married and lives in Cairo.
