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    Unavailable
    The Extraordinary Journey of the Fakir Who Got Trapped in an Ikea Wardrobe: A novel
    Unavailable
    The Extraordinary Journey of the Fakir Who Got Trapped in an Ikea Wardrobe: A novel
    Unavailable
    The Extraordinary Journey of the Fakir Who Got Trapped in an Ikea Wardrobe: A novel
    Audiobook5 hours

    The Extraordinary Journey of the Fakir Who Got Trapped in an Ikea Wardrobe: A novel

    Written by Romain Puertolas

    Narrated by Julian Rhind-Tutt

    3/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this audiobook

    A charmingly exuberant comic debut from an exciting new literary voice,  and a "quirky, hilarious, elegantly written farce" (The Daily Telegraph), The Extraordinary Journey of the Fakir Who Got Trapped in an Ikea Wardrobe is the globetrotting story of a trickster from rural India and his adventure of a lifetime.  

    When the fakir-a professional con artist-arrives in Paris, he has just one goal: to get to Ikea. Armed with only a counterfeit hundred-euro note in the pocket of his silk trousers, he is confident that he has all he needs to thrive. But his plan goes horribly awry when he hides inside a wardrobe at the iconic Swedish retailer-the first in a series of accidents that will send him on a whirlwind tour across Europe.

    Pursued across the continent by a swindled taxi driver dead set on revenge, our fakir soon finds unlikely friends-from movie stars to illegal immigrants-in even unlikelier places. And, much to his own surprise, his heart begins to open to those around him as he comes to understand the universal desire to seek a better life in an often dangerous world.

    Channeling the manic energy of the Marx Brothers and the biting social commentary of Candide, Romain Puértolas has crafted an unforgettable comic romp around Europe that is propelled by laughter, love, and, ultimately, redemption. (Meatballs not included but highly recommended.)

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPenguin Random House Audio
    Release dateJan 27, 2015
    ISBN9781101890080
    Unavailable
    The Extraordinary Journey of the Fakir Who Got Trapped in an Ikea Wardrobe: A novel

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    Reviews for The Extraordinary Journey of the Fakir Who Got Trapped in an Ikea Wardrobe

    3/5

    125 ratings8 reviews

    What did you think?

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    • 5/5
      loved this fun romp through Europe in furniture and baggage.
    • 3/5
      Not very surprising nor extraordinary, the book seemed to be written by a machine: which bit fits best in this place - let us use it! This made the general feel that of a marketing tool or a slapstick. Some people may enjoy its predictability and ease, rather stale, deflated jokes and "life lessons", for me it did not work at all.
    • 5/5
      Best book ever!What a story! What a journey! I love how it all comes together. So humorous, such fantastic and clever storytelling, you surely don't realize this is a first time author. What an epic adventure! You really can't help but get immersed in this extraordinary journey.Aja, the fakir, is so interesting and more unique than any other character I have read about before. Really, at the end, I wanted more. Though the story opened, flowed and closed perfectly, I could keep reading day in and out.Romain Puértolas is a genius storyteller and frankly, a new favorite of mine.I now NEED a copy of The 100 Year Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared. I strongly suggest you start reading his books too!
    • 4/5
      This is one of the funniest farces I've read in a long time. Available as a Kindle download from my local library, very reminiscent of [The 100 year old Man who climbed out the window and disappeared] or a good old fashioned Three Stooges/Fawlty Towers/Monty Python slapstick. A quick, quirky, belly-laugh out loud satire. Absolutely delightful. Get it and save it for a day when you need a quick and sure pick me up.Here's a ferinstance: "A fakir by trade, Ajatashatru Oghash (pronounced A-jar-of-rat-stew-oh-gosh!) had decided to travel icognito 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 manfrom the village who had, during his youth, been a representative for a famous brand of shampoo...."In addition to the fun, the travel, and the outrageous puns, there's actually a teensy bit of a life lesson.
    • 5/5
      I really, really enjoyed this story! A modern day fable of sorts, this is a funny, charming, feel good kind of story filled with wry humour but still strikes the right cords when it comes to conveying the transition of the heart and conscience of our hapless fakir. For a con man, Ajatashatru Oghash Rathod is a likeable fella who tries to resort to his con-man ways only when he needs to. The manner in which he finds himself trapped in an IKEA wardrobe is nothing spectacular but the journey he finds himself unwittingly embarked upon is well worth the read. In this story, Puertolas brings home the plight of illegal immigrants in search of a better life, who find themselves at the mercy of a country's interpretation of international readmission agreements, and who can be sent to countries that they are not originally from or have ever set foot in or traveled through. He manages to present the various countries' attitudes and policies towards immigrants in their flawed glory for examination. He even pokes fun at how a foreign name can make a listener hear something that sounds similar but conveys a very different mental picture in their mind when they phonetically piece the sounds together. Even the "story in a story" approach was a interesting touch, even if it didn't work all that well for me. Overall, this wonderful feel good story with heart can be summed up nicely with the following quote: "He had made an extraordinary nine-day journey, a voyage within himself during which he had learned that, by discovering all the other things that existed elsewhere, he could become someone else." I can recommend this novel to readers who enjoy messages of conscience and meaning wrapped up in a fun, comic story. I noticed that the Penguin site recommends this book for readers of The 100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared, so it looks like I am adding that one to my future reading list.
    • 3/5
      Amuesant. Kreative.
    • 3/5
      Fun romp through Europe. A Fakir goes to an Ikea in Paris to get a new bed of nails. He doesn't have money for a hotel room so is going to stay in the Ikea store over night. To escape the notice of employees he slips into a wardrobe. However the employees are there for the wardrobe and he finds himself on a truck headed towards London. The truck is stopped by the police and he and some refugees are deported to Spain. He's released in Spain and runs into a French taxi driver that he stiffed on the fair. To escape the taxi driver he gets into a large trunk at the airport which lands him in Rome. In Rome he hijacks a hot air balloon trying to escape from a cousin of the taxi driver who's out to get him. The balloon runs out of hot air over the Mediterranean and he's rescued by some Libyans. By now he's come into some money after getting an advance on a book that he started righting on his shirt. He convinces the Libyans to let him go with a small ransom. And the final leg of the journey is back to France to meet up with the woman who he has fallen in love with that he met in the Ikea store by means of a trick pair of sunglasses.
    • 4/5
      Diverting, rather cute and just a bit thought-provoking although not as much as I think it would like to be. Also, not too taxing on my level of French comprehension i.e. I didn't have to resort to the dictionary at any point in order to understand what was going on.