Freud's Alphabet: A Novel

At once a delightfully inventive chronicle of Freud's last days and an insightful reflection on Freudian existence. 1939. The War is about to begin. Sigmund Freud has fled from Vienna to London. Accompanied by his faithful disciple, Ernst Jones, he ventures out into this alien city. He goes swimming with Jones, and dancing with him. He finds his way to Madame Tussaud's. He consults a fortuneteller. He uncovers a series of shocking secrets...Or does he? Perhaps Freud does no more than dream up versions of the city, each more insightful and extraordinary and magical than the one before. Freud's Alphabet is a brilliant and moving narrative, closely based on fact, describing the last days of Freud; it is also a dazzlingly original series of riffs on Freud's ideas. It is the guide to all our dreams, and the guidebook to the world in which, ever since Freud, we have all been living.