The Sorcerer Of Stockholm

"Almost everyone seems to know something about him, but no one knows all. Or nearly all. And what they do know may or may not be true. Tales of his comings and goings, past and present exploits, current or future whereabouts are rife, highly varied and often conflicting." That is what Jonathan, a diarist and English teacher, writes in his description of Samuel Gold, the man he calls The Sorcerer. He also writes, "He has a passion for antiquarian books, which he buys and sells, an extraordinary eye for the opposite sex, no eye for the clock, little or no appreciation of where involvement might lead and definitely none at all of the value of money. Unruffled, he calmly compounds his entanglements with new and more involved meshes, or fresh embarrassments that fail, however, to embarrass him." To his great consternation, Jonathan finds himself constantly dependent on the highly unreliable Samuel. The setting is Stockholm in 1975-76.