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In this wildly comedic romp around Europe, a fakir—and professional con artist—from rural India arrives in Paris with one goal: to visit IKEA. But his plan goes horribly awry when he climbs inside a wardrobe at the iconic Swedish retailer—the first in a series of missteps that will send him on a whirlwind tour across the continent. As his journey progresses, the fakir finds unlikely friends in even unlikelier places. To his surprise, the stirrings of compassion well up in his heart, even as his adventures lead to meditations on the perils of immigration and the universal desire for a better life. Propelled by laughter, love, and, ultimately, redemption, The Extraordinary Journey of the Fakir Who Got Trapped in an Ikea Wardrobe is a work of manic energy and biting social commentary, and a charmingly exuberant debut from an exciting new literary voice.
- Sales Rank: #445703 in Books
- Published on: 2016-01-12
- Released on: 2016-01-12
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Dimensions: 8.00" h x .44" w x 5.13" l, .54 pounds
- Binding: Paperback
- 320 pages
Review
INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER
Winner of the Grand Prix Jules Verne
Finalist for the Prix Renaudot
“[A] comic strip of a novel. . . . Strewn with laugh-out-loud jokes.” —The New York Times Book Review
“A philosophical odyssey. By turns slapstick and serious.” —The Wall Street Journal
“Entertaining and original.” —Minneapolis Star Tribune
“A delightfully silly confection.” —The Seattle Times
“Combines farce worthy of Laurel and Hardy with socio-political satire.” —The Washington Times
“Who would have thought that a comedy that mixes flat-pack furniture with magic could tackle some of the biggest subjects of our time? With a big heart, a brilliant sense of humour and an excellent translator, that’s what French writer Romain Puértolas achieves.” —The Independent
“Full of quirky charm. . . . [A] hilarious and touching journey towards redemption and self-knowledge. Delightful.” —The Times (London)
“As astonishing and original as its title—and disarming to boot. . . . Romain Puértolas has given us an amalgam that is both pointed in its social criticism and—dare it be said—charming enough to make Voltaire cringe. . . . It’s fable and it’s farce. It’s satire and it’s spoof. It’s brash and it’s stirring.” —The Anniston Star
“Brilliant . . . A fable, a farce, but also and above all, a delicious satire of the modern world.” —Le Figaro Magazine
“A madcap romantic adventure. . . . Blessed with an energetic bonhomie that’s thoroughly endearing.” —The Mail on Sunday
“A farcical tale with a dark underbelly. . . . A manic yet incisive satire.” —Publishers Weekly
“Very funny.” —Daily Mail
“As heartfelt as it is original.” —GQ (UK)
“Wryly comic. . . . That rare beast: a novel full of heart and conscience that never takes itself too seriously.” —The Guardian (UK)
“[A] quirky, hilarious, elegantly-written farce.” —The Daily Telegraph
“Genuinely funny.” —Vogue (UK)
“If you believe in zen and the art of flat pack furniture, this is the book for you.” —Sunday Express
“As sprightly as it is funny. . . . [Puértolas] piles up the vivid scenes along with oodles of puns.” —L’Express (France)
“A manic fairy tale peppered with wry observations and social criticism. . . . It charms with its exuberance and satirical sensibility. . . . [Puértolas] delights in puns while satirizing consumerism and the capriciousness of the immigration system.” —Shelf Awareness
About the Author
Romain Puértolas was born in Montpellier and has lived in France, Spain, and the U.K., where he has been a DJ, singer-songwriter, language teacher, translator-interpreter, and steward. He most recently worked as a police inspector with the French border service, specializing in document fraud. The Extraordinary Journey of the Fakir Who Got Trapped in an Ikea Wardrobe was a number-one best seller in France and has been published in thirty-five countries.
www.romainpuertolas.com
Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
A fakir by trade, Ajatashatru Oghash (pronounced Ajarofratstewohgosh!) had decided to travel incognito for his first trip to Europe. For this occasion, he had swapped his “uniform,” which consisted of a loincloth shaped like an enormous diaper, for a shiny gray suit and a tie rented for peanuts from Dilawar (pronounced Die, lawyer!), an old man from the village who had, during his youth, been a representative for a famous brand of shampoo, and who still had an impressive head of (graying) hair.
In choosing this disguise, which he was to wear for both days of his trip, the fakir had secretly wished to be taken for a wealthy Indian industrialist—so much so that he had forsaken wearing comfortable clothes (i.e., a tracksuit and sandals) for the three-hour bus journey and a flight lasting eight hours and fifteen minutes. After all, pretending to be something he was not was his job: he was a fakir. He had kept only his turban, for religious reasons. Beneath it, his hair kept growing and growing. It was now, he estimated, about sixteen inches long, with a total population of thirty thousand (mostly germs and fleas).
Getting into the taxi that day, Ajatashatru (pronounced Acatinabatsuit) had immediately noticed that his peculiar get-up had produced the desired effect on the European, in spite of the tie, which neither he nor his cousin knew how to knot correctly, even after the perfectly clear but somewhat shaky explanations of Dilawar, who had Parkinson’s. But obviously this was a minor detail, as it had gone unnoticed amid the overwhelming elegance of his attire.
A glance in the rearview mirror not being enough to contemplate such handsomeness, the Frenchman had actually turned around in his seat in order to better admire Ajatashatru, making the bones in his neck crack as he did so, as if he were preparing for an act of contortionism.
“Ikea?”
“Ikeaaa.”
“Lequel? Er . . . what Ikea?” the driver had
stammered, apparently as comfortable speaking English as a (holy) cow on ice skates.
“Just Ikea. Doesn’t matter. The one that best suits you. You’re the Parisian.”
Smiling, the driver had rubbed his hands before starting the engine.
The Frenchman has taken the bait, thought Ajatashatru (pronounced Ajackalthatateyou) with satisfaction. This new look was proving ideal for his mission. With a little luck, and if he didn’t have to open his mouth too much, he might even pass for a native.
Ajatashatru was famous throughout Rajasthan for swallowing retractable swords, eating broken glass made from zero-calorie sugar, stabbing his arms with fake needles, and a heap of other conjuring tricks, the secrets of which were known only to him and his cousins, and which he was happy to label magical powers in order to bewitch the masses.
So, when the time came to pay the bill for the taxi ride, which amounted to €98.45, our fakir handed over the only money he had for his entire trip—a counterfeit €100 note printed on just one side—while nonchalantly gesturing to the driver that he could keep the change.
Just as the driver was sliding the note into his wallet, Ajatashatru created a diversion by pointing at the huge yellow letters that proudly spelled out IKEA above the blue building. The gypsy looked up long enough for the fakir to pull nimbly on the invisible elastic that connected his little finger to the €100 note. A tenth of a second later, the money had returned to its original owner.
“Oh, I almost forgot,” said the driver, believing the note to be nestled safely within his wallet. “Let me give you my firm’s card. In case you need a taxi for the way back. We have vans as well, if you need. Believe me, even in flatpack form, furniture takes up a lot of space.”
Gustave never knew if the Indian had under- stood any of what he had just told him. Rummaging in the glove compartment, he pulled out a laminated business card emblazoned with a flamenco dancer and handed it to him.
“Merci,” said the foreigner.
When the red Mercedes of Gypsy Taxis had disappeared—although the fakir, who was only used to making small-eared Indian elephants disappear, could not claim to be responsible—Ajatashatru slipped the card into his pocket and contemplated the vast commercial warehouse that stretched out in front of him.
Most helpful customer reviews
10 of 10 people found the following review helpful.
A Stranger in a Strange Land
By Miss Barbara
This is a quirky little tale of an Indian fakir who travels to a Paris Ikea to purchase a new bed of nails. It seems that there are no Ikeas in India so with the help of his village in purchasing his airplane ticket and a relative who printed him a One-Hundred Euro note (one sided only)he sets out on the adventure of his life. Ajatashatru is subsequently trapped in a wardrobe that is shipped (with him in it). His adventure that that started in India will take him to Paris, Great Britain, Spain, Italy, and Libya and eventually back to France.
The insurmountable pronunciations of the Indian names are jokingly renamed by the author adding to the appeal of the story. For instance the cousin of Aj (my nickname for ease of reading) is named Ghanashyam, pronounced "Gonna-show-em" and his adoptive mother, Adishree Dhou, is pronounced "A-didgeridoo". Following Aj from one country to the next clearly illustrates what it's like to be a stranger in a strange land.
The situations are totally unbelievable, the protagonist is a Fakir in every sense of the word, and the secondary characters are beguiling. I loved every word and found myself laughing more than I have while reading a book in a long time.
13 of 15 people found the following review helpful.
Different but disappointing
By Discerning Reader
The title of the book is such that you have to pick it up and read it. This is an unusual book and starts off by being very interesting. The reader wants to know what happens next and initially finds it difficult to put the book down.
Romain Puertolas has got a very interesting style, and you can feel his humour and sarcasm. For example, Marie tells Ajatashatru that a lot of his countrymen worked at the Eiffel Tower, selling Eiffel Towers, and that one of them might be one of his relatives. Ajatashatru did not understand what was meant by this, and wondered if she meant that all Indians in Paris were estate agents.
The author is also very clever in the way he gives the pronunciations of the names of characters . It is hilarious. For instance he states Ajatashatru Oghash (pronounced A –jar-of-rat-stew-oh-gosh!). Later on he gives different pronunciations. They are very funny.
However, after some time, the book loses its charm as the events are so unbelievable. Those who have read Jonas Jonasson’s The Hundred Year Old Man who Climbed out of the Window and Disappeared would have also felt that what happened in that book was totally unbelievable. But the difference between Jonasson’s book and this one by Puertolas is that there is more depth in the former. In Jonasson’s book the author is very critical of a much wider range of institutions and systems. What makes this profound is that his approaches are based on a critical analysis of the institutions/systems that he is referring to. In The Extraordinary Journey of the Fakir Who Got Trapped in an IKEA Wardrobe there are interesting insights into lives of refugees and migrants. But otherwise it is like a fairy tale of the survival and in the end the happiness of the fakir.
The book by Puertolas is good fun, if you want to have something very light and when you want to relax. But otherwise you could find it quite shallow.
6 of 7 people found the following review helpful.
Intelligent satire (with plenty of bizarre and lowbrow humor for good measure)
By J. Weaver
This is the sort of novel where almost any discussion of the plot would spoil some element of the story. Without going into too much detail, an Indian fakir (who's secretly a con man) flies to Paris using money given to him by the people of his village to purchase Ikea's latest model bed of nails, planning to secretly sell it. Things take a turn for the bizarre (well, even more bizarre) when he decides to spend the night in the store, having no money for other accommodations, and winds up trapped in an Ikea wardrobe (just like the title says!). He then finds himself in a dizzying intercontinental string of mishaps and coincidences that put those in the Star Wars prequel trilogy to shame.
The social satire is sharp, with the humor working on multiple levels, and the chain of events is so incredibly bizarre that I couldn't help but be reminded of another French novel, Voltaire's Candide. (Okay, Ramon Puertolas isn't quite on par with Voltaire, but there are definite similarities in the style of the two novels, no doubt intentional on the part of Puertolas. Perhaps "the French novel equivalent of Arrested Development" might be more appropriate.) The translation is so polished that it is easy to forget (almost impossible to remember, actually) that the story wasn't originally written in English. The wordplay that serves as a humorous sort of pronunciation guide to the various names is particularly strong when one takes into mind that this isn't the original language. (I almost wish I understood French just to be able to compare the two texts.)
TEJOTFWGOIAIW (even an acronym of the title is long!) is a relatively small book, and a quick read. But to write it off as simple disposable entertainment would be a mistake. The ending may be a little too neatly wrapped up, but that's hardly enough to hold against it. Highly recommended.
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