The Wooden Shepherdess

"Hughes's hero Augustine is in prohibition-era America where he is a bemused onlooker and an increasingly fascinated participant in a country intoxicated with sex, violence, and booze. The book then moves to Germany, where the Nazi Party is gradually gaining in power; to the slums, mining towns, parliamentary back rooms, and great houses of a Britain teetering on the verge of class war."--Back cover.