Call him Pavel Medved or Paulie or Paul Theroux. It doesn't matter - his memoirs are a hoax. He's a writer with no story of his own, so he's reconstructed his past, giving it wit and life, tragedy and pathos, and imposed an order on it through careful editing. Inordinately fond of train travel, he takes the listener on a journey over a career spanning 30 years, and with many guises, from his early days as a fledging novelist in literary London, under the wing of the rapacious Lady Max, to his grief at finding himself alone, at age 50, in the town of his youth. The real Paul Theroux weaves this stylish and clever biography of a writer whose fall from grace sets him adrift until he recognizes the redeeming power of his art.
Introduction by Paul Theroux