Doctor Criminale

In a deliciously wicked satire of the current literary scene, British author Bradbury insightfully examines the morally ambiguous state of the post-Cold War world. When his London newspaper suddenly folds, young, likeable writer Francis Jay finds a job researching the life of world-renowned Hungarian philosopher Bazlo Criminale for a possible BBC program. The quest for the enigmatic Criminale–an Eastern European intellectual who has been given the extraordinary freedom to travel and publish abroad–takes Jay on an illuminating and sexy romp through Budapest, Vienna, Italy, and Switzerland. Jay loses his naivete as he enters this world of "fixers" and under-the-table deals, where compromising on principles is a survival technique.