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    Dr Ragab's Universal Language
    Dr Ragab's Universal Language
    Dr Ragab's Universal Language
    Ebook259 pages3 hours

    Dr Ragab's Universal Language

    By Robert Twigger

    3/5

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    About this ebook

    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 in Germany by a gang of thugs. To make matters worse, it's not just any bunker; it's the family bunker, built to be 100% escape-proof. 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. 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.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPan Macmillan
    Release dateDec 10, 2010
    ISBN9780330506281
    Dr Ragab's Universal Language
    Author

    Robert Twigger

    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.

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    • 3/5
      So – is the universal language a vocal thing, a physical thing, the secret of invisibility…? At first, I assumed this was a much deeper, more complicated read than it appeared on the surface but later I decided, it probably wasn’t.It’s a very readable book, the Cairo passages were atmospheric and beautifully written, the chapters in which Hertwig describes his experiences with Dr Ragab were especially good, the rest – less so. A bit of a curate’s egg of a book that was fine in its parts but didn’t gel as a whole. The ending was particularly anti-climactic. I kept waiting for something ‘big’ to happen, something deep and profound and it never did.Which isn’t to say it isn’t worth reading, it’s a pleasant, easy read, it’s just not the masterpiece some reviewers (and the cover blurb) would have you believe, not what it says on the tin.

    Book preview

    Dr Ragab's Universal Language - Robert Twigger

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