num_pages: 281
description: Perhaps Aldiss's most experimental work, this first appeared in several parts as the 'Acid Head War' series in New Worlds. Set in a Europe some years after a flare-up in the Middle East led to Europe being attacked with bombs releasing huge quantities of long-lived hallucinogenic drugs. Into an England with a population barely maintaining a grip on reality comes a young Serb, who himself starts coming under the influence of the ambient aerosols, and finds himself leading a messianic crusade. The narration and dialogue reflects the shattering of language under the influence of the drugs, in mutating phrases and puns and allusions, in a deliberate echo of Finnegans Wake.
language: English
title: Barefoot in the Head
titlecomplete: Barefoot in the Head
characters: Colin Charteris
genres: Fiction, Science Fiction, British Literature, Speculative Fiction, Surreal, Literature, Science Fiction Fantasy, Novels, 20th Century, Post Apocalyptic
ratings_count: 373
publisher: Faber & Faber