Description
“This is political satire at its most outrageous, and it’s fun.” – Cheryl Akle, The Australian
A great review by Alan Gregory from the Sydney Institute: “… a very good read, with equal elements of a socio-politico farce and of a spy thriller, plus a touch of sci-fi!” https://thesydneyinstitute.com.au/blog/grafton-everest-meets-the-trans-siberian-railway/
One of the Fiction Picks of the Week in The Age and Sydney Morning Herald by Cameron Woodhead, December 17, 2021
‘Riffing off The Lower Depths – the Maxim Gorky play about being down and out in Russia – the latest Grafton Everest novel sees our mock-hero on assignment in Moscow. This time, Grafton’s breathless incompetence is required by the United Nations. His mission? To expose electoral fraud in Russia. He does have an ulterior motive – he’s found a decades-old letter from his mother to someone in the Soviet Union, suggesting that he may not be an only child after all.
As usual, Grafton arses his way through international espionage and political skulduggery he is ill-equipped to handle, and the hunt for his mystery sibling leads him deep into the wilds of Siberia, where a link to the dark and tangled web of Russian history awaits. Ross Fitzgerald teams up with comic writer Ian McFadyen for a free-wheeling mix of academic satire and political lampoon.’
The eighth book in the Grafton Everest series sees the hapless ex-President of the Republic of Australia, Dr Professor Grafton Everest, caught up in a web of international espionage and intrigue that he is hopelessly ill-equipped to handle.
Abandoned to his own inadequate devices when his wife Janet departs on a world tour, with his home invaded by his now broke daughter and son-in-law, Grafton accepts an assignment with the United Nations to investigate electoral fraud in Russia. The reason is not only to get out of the house; an old letter from his mother, addressed to someone in the Soviet Union fifty years ago, suggests that Grafton may not be the only child that he always thought he was.
Grafton’s mission to Moscow and his search for this mysterious sibling take him far from the Russian capital, deep into the icy wastes of Siberia and even deeper in a tangled conspiracy whose roots extend back to the Cold War and even as far back as the Russian Revolution.
“Professor Fitzgerald’s knowledge of Russian history and its cold war ambience gives this eighth novel a rich sense of place and time, and as always Grafton is drawn closer to the centre of a catastrophe, clutching at snacks as if his life depended on it. As indeed it does. Without giving too much away, I can reveal that, in a Graftonesque moment of destiny, it is ultimately chocolate that saves his life.” – Neal Price
About the authors: Ross Fitzgerald AM is Emeritus Professor of History & Politics at Griffith University. He is the author of forty-three books, including a memoir Fifty Years Sober: An Alcoholic’s Journey.
Journalist Spotlight and interview with Ross on MediaNet blog: https://bit.ly/3nUSyaj
Ian McFadyen is a writer, actor and television producer who has created a number of successful television series, books and plays.
