Fame, success, fortune, a drink problem slipping over the edge into alcoholism, a dead marriage, the incurable itches of middle-aged lust. For Wilfred Barclay, novelist, the final, unbearable irritation is Professor Rick. L. Tucker, implacable in his determination to become The Barclay Man. Locked in a lethal relationship they stumble half-blindly across Europe, shedding wives, self-respect, illusions. They confront terrifying abysses - physical, emotional, spiritual - and continually change roles, change themselves, change the worlds about them. The climax of their odyssey, when it comes, is as inevitable as it is unexpected. Powerful, unpredictable and unclassifiable, The Paper Men is as idiosyncratic and original as anything William Golding wrote.