S ndor Szathm ri's comical novel chronicles the travels of a modern Gulliver on the eve of World War II. A shipwrecked English ship's surgeon finds himself on an unknown island whose inhabitants, the Hins, live in a technologically advanced existence without emotions, desires, arts, money or politics. Soon unhappy with this bleak perfection, Gulliver asks to be admitted to the closed settlement of the Behins, beings with souls and atavistic human traits. But he's seen nothing yet...