“A hilarious, accomplished account of this epic journey of 'a stranger in a strange land' ... It was less state visit and more spiritual, transformative journey, with echoes of Kerouac, de Tocqueville, and Borat ... Carlson has clearly struck gold with the material and has a brilliant eye for the absurd"

FINANCIAL TIMES

“jaw-dropping"

BOSTON GLOBE

“novelist couldn't have invented a wackier Cold War interlude”

NEWSWEEK

’Utterly hilarious and un-putdown-able … Someone absolutely has to make this into a movie. I insist!

CHRISTOPHER BUCKLEY