Daniel Thayne, a young Englishman, finds himself trapped in Tokyo working illegally in a ramshackle language school, his passport lost, he is hustled towards marriage with Keiko, his Japanese girlfriend. In MR FOREIGNER Matthew Kneale brilliantly illustrates the profound differences between Western and Eastern cultures. The problems encountered by Daniel when dealing with the Japanese are at the same time both comic and deeply disturbing. Set in a Japan unfamiliar to most of us, this is a marvellous novel from one of our finest contemporary writers.