A Guide to the Perplexed

The year is 2052, and the state of Israel has been defunct for forty years, the majority of its citizens having become refugees overseas. In order to provide Israel with a decent burial, an Institute for the Documentation of Zion is established, and among its archives is the autobiography of one Gunther W?nker. A Guide to the Perplexed is the story of Gunther?s life. Born in Israel, Gunther becomes fiercely anti-Zionist through the experience of national service. He loves European, especially German, women and soon leaves Israel to find fame, fortune and fornication in Germany: cultured country of his ancestors whose collective guilt-trip is a goldmine for the licentious professor. Before long Gunther is a famous professor of philosophy and the founder of ?Peepology? - an intellectual discipline derived from the exile's position as voyeur. A Guide to the Perplexed is a darkly funny reflection on the dangers of racial purity and the position of the outsider in Western Europe. Gilad Atzmon's book marries the playfulness of Nabokov with the sexiness of Philip Roth. It is an angry reflection on the effects of ethnic cleansing of both our bodies and our minds.