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

It all starts with a expedition to an Ikea in France to buy a bed of nails with counterfeit money. But, when our protagonist–a con man who trafficks in Indian mysticism–hides in a wardrobe and finds himself transported into another country, suddenly we’re off to the races. As he befriends unexpected allies and stumbles across international lines, the fakir con artist begins to question his past vocation. Where will his impromptu journey take him next, and what will he do once he arrives?

A cultured, madcap travelogue that owes as much to Monty Python as it does to Cervantes, The Extraordinary Journey of the Fakir Who Got Trapped in an Ikea Wardrobe is what I like to think of as a snowball story: a novel where consequences of a single action pile up and accumulate, accelerating the narrative to an inevitable farcical collision with the immovable obstacle known as the neat little wrap-up.

But, it’s the roll down the hill, not the climax, that sells the story, and Puertolas has crafted a befuddled, quaint trip for the reader. It’s never laugh-out-loud funny, but it will make you smile from time to time.