Imagine historians' surprise on learning that 'icon of excess' and larger-than-life playboy monarch, King Farouk I of Egypt, 1920-1965, wrote an autobiography. Allegedly.
Transcribed from a manuscript discovered in mysterious circumstances, and only now publishable in these more liberal times, this book reveals a scandalous secret history requiring a radical rethink of just about everything. Including World War II, the Cold War, and Stalin's dancing skills.
Covering Farouk's rake's progress from birth to death, it details his claim to be a much misunderstood and maligned world leader, selected by Fate (and an angel) to single-handedly alter world history. Whilst having a whale of a time.
Farouk's words are footnoted by two antagonistic editors, whose work on the shocking manuscript brings both close to breakdown. Their stunned, chalk-&-cheese contributions become as much a part of the narrative as Farouk's confessions.
As a (usually) forgivable monster of self-indulgent self-deception, porn connoisseur, master of Machiavellian statecraft and pickpocketing kleptomaniac, King Farouk's disgracefully amusing and amusingly disgraceful admissions will inform and entertain. And probably appal...
Everything is Permissible is a stand-alone novel but is exquisitely complemented by a prequel, Nothing is True... , covering King Farouk's pre-exile Egyptian excesses, 1920-1952.
Genre: Science Fiction
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Used availability for John Whitbourn's Everything is Permissible