''Devil of a State'' is a 1961 novel by

Anthony Burgess John Anthony Burgess Wilson, (; 25 February 1917 – 22 November 1993) who published under the name Anthony Burgess, was an English writer and composer. Although Burgess was primarily a comic writer, his Utopian and dystopian fiction, dy ...

based on his experience living and working in

Bandar Seri Begawan Bandar Seri Begawan (BSB) is the capital and largest city of Brunei. It is officially a Municipalities of Brunei, municipal area () with an area of and an estimated population of 100,700 as of 2007. It is part of Brunei–Muara District, the s ...

, the capital of the Southeast Asian sultanate of

Brunei Brunei, officially Brunei Darussalam, is a country in Southeast Asia, situated on the northern coast of the island of Borneo. Apart from its coastline on the South China Sea, it is completely surrounded by the Malaysian state of Sarawak, with ...

, on the island of

Borneo Borneo () is the List of islands by area, third-largest island in the world, with an area of , and population of 23,053,723 (2020 national censuses). Situated at the geographic centre of Maritime Southeast Asia, it is one of the Greater Sunda ...

, in 1958–59. It is the fourth of what have been called Burgess's "exotic novels", the others being ''

Time for a Tiger ''The Malayan Trilogy'', also published as ''The Long Day Wanes: A Malayan Trilogy'' in the United States, is a comic 'triptych' of novels by Anthony Burgess set amidst the decolonisation of Malaya. It is a detailed fictional exploration of ...

'', '' The Enemy in the Blanket'' and '' Beds in the East''. To avoid any risk of a libel suit the action was set in an imaginary caliphate, "Dunia", the location was moved to East Africa, and a UN representative was substituted for the British adviser. In the first volume of his autobiography, '' Little Wilson and Big God, Being the First Part of the Confessions of Anthony Burgess'' (1987), Burgess wrote:''Little Wilson and Big God''
Anthony Burgess, Random House, 2012, page 431

This novel was, is, about Brunei, which was renamed Naraka, Malayo-Arabic for hell. Little invention was needed to contrive a large cast of unbelievable characters and a number of interwoven plots. Though completed in 1958, the work was not published until 1961, for what it was worth it was made a choice of the book society. Heinemann, my publisher, was doubtful about publishing it: it might be libelous. I had to change the setting from Borneo to an East African one. Heinemann was right to be timorous. In early 1958 'The Enemy in the Blanket' appeared and this at once provoked a libel suit.

Characters and plot

The Italians Nando and Paolo Tasca, father and son, are working on the marble in the grandiose mosque that is under construction (this was in fact the

Sultan Omar Ali Saifuddin Mosque The Omar Ali Saifuddien Mosque () or unofficially Sultan Omar Ali Saifuddin Mosque (SOAS Mosque), is a mosque in Bandar Seri Begawan, the capital of Brunei. Omar Ali Saifuddien III, the 28th Sultan of Brunei, is credited with building the m ...

, designed by an Italian architect and built while Burgess was in Brunei). After a furious argument with his violent father over a purloined pocket watch, Paolo seeks refuge in one of the mosque's minarets. When political oppositionists learn of Paolo's act, they exalt him as a hero in the struggle against colonial oppression and he becomes a household name in enlightened circles around the world. But how will they get him to come down?

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Devil Of A State 1961 British novels Novels set in Brunei Heinemann (publisher) books Novels by Anthony Burgess