Robert Mullen – författare

Men of Talent Sought! Only Superior Persons Need Apply!  A brilliant comic novel from EnvelopeBooks. Political satire—half Daoist wisdom, half Lewis Carroll. A modern-day Chinese schoolteacher falls into an alcoholic sleep and dreams himself back a thousand years, scaling the heights of the imperial civil service—and then finding himself stranded.All roads leads to the celestial city, and when schoolmaster Po Cheng drinks too much and falls into a dream, he finds himself on just such a road. Assisted by teaching colleague Miss Ling, Po Cheng reaches the imperial capital, rising through the giddy ranks of the Chinese civil service to become prime minister.Good fortune appears endless, not least when delectable Miss Ling reappears in his life as an artist's model who has changed her name to Precious Pearl so she can pose in the Forest of Brushes Academy of Art without her parents finding out.But what Heaven—and alcohol—give, they can also claw back. With trouble brewing inside and outside the city walls, Po Cheng's career and life seem fated, and he must now take the inevitable consequences of his rise to fame and power.Mustard Seed Itinerary is a hilarious first novel, bringing to the formal conventions of traditional Chinese literature the wry humour of a Carrollian satirist.

The experiences of an ordinary man on the pilgrim’s path are charted in this narrative that walks along the Camino Francés to the shrine of Saint James at Santiago de Compostela and then on to Finisterre, the westernmost point of Spain. The history of the Camino is recounted, as well as several of the myths, legends, and miracle stories that have become attached--and given special meaning--to this itinerary. Emphasizing that personal myths are an essential part of this lore, this chronicle also includes stories from the confraternity of the pilgrims, people from all corners of the world who visit this walk for a great diversity of reasons, but all of whom leave having experienced the same miracle--that this pilgrimage will play a defining role in their lives.