Rates of Exchange

Book Review

«Rates of Exchange» by Malcolm Bradbury is a witty and sophisticated satire on the absurdity of the bureaucratic world and the fragility of cultural boundaries. With exquisite precision, the author creates the atmosphere of a fictional Eastern European country, where language becomes not only a means of communication but also a trap in which meanings and truths are lost. Bradbury masterfully balances between grotesque and subtle irony, allowing the reader to feel the ambiguity and comedy of the encounter between West and East. Critics praise the elegance of the style, the richness of allusions, and the deep philosophical undertones of the novel, in which apparent lightness conceals reflections on the nature of identity, power, and human communication. «Rates of Exchange» is not just a parody of academic and political rituals, but also a penetrating look at the fragility of human connections in a world where everything is subject to translation and distortion.