Ludmila's Broken English follows two different plot threads. In a future England, all government functions are being privatised including the health service. Conjoined twins Blair and Gordon (also called Bunny) have been kept in a home for those with birth defects, and the decision is made to separate them and set them free into the world. Blair and Bunny want different things from life, one to enjoy all the trappings of freedom, the other to return to the home. Meanwhile, in the small Caucasian republic of the Ublilsk, civil war has left most people destitute. Ludmila Ivanova kills her grandfather when he tries to rape her, but his veterans war coupons are needed to keep them from starving. She dreams of life in the west and has her photo added to a Russian bride web site. Eventually she crosses path with Blair and Bunny. DBC Pierre's second novel (following his Booker-winning
Vernon God Little) has received mixed reviews with the Sydney Morning Herald saying, "In the long run the absurdities of
Ludmila's Broken English - the title refers as much, to the separated twins as to Ludmila's attempts to speak the language of wealth and power - are sustained by Pierre's wit and stylistic virtuosity. His prose slithers and slides like a cunning snake."
