ABOUT THE BOOK

Switters is a contradiction for all seasons: an anarchist who works for the government, a pacifist who carries a gun, a vetetarian who sops up ham gravy. Yet there is nothing limp about Switters. He doesn't merely pack a pistol. He is a pistol. As we follow Switters across four continents Robbins explores, challenges and celebrates virtually every major aspect of our mercurial era.

As many readers well know, to describe a Tom Robbins plot does not begin to describe a Tom Robbins novel. The internationally acclaimed best-selling author is as opposed to story summations as J.D.Salinger, but it is revealing perhaps to learn what he claims to have influenced his writing of Fierce Invalids:
"This book was inspired by an entry from Bruce Chatwin's journal, by a CIA agent met in Southeast Asia, by the mystery surrounding the lost prophecy of the Virgin of Fatima, by the increasing evidence that the interplay of opposites is the engine that runs the universe, and by embroidered memories of old Terry and the Pirates comic books."

CRITICAL ACCLAIM

'Tom Robbins has a grasp on things that dazzles the brain and he's also a world-class storyteller' - Thomas Pynchon

'In his seventh, and perhaps most complex novel to date, Robbins shines as brilliantly as he has in the past...superb current social commentary' - The New York Post

'... one of the wildest and most entertaining novelists in the world' - The Financial Times

NEWS

April 2001
Earlier this year Tom Robbins took part in an online question and answer session, which raised the question of whether his novel killed Elvis - find out at booksunlimited.co.uk