The descent seemed predetermined from childhood. Neglected by his parents, abused in a monastery home, he slipped into the Zurich burglary and pimp scene, and ended up in prison. Yet, Guido T. manages to pull himself out of the mire through his own efforts: he becomes a sailor on Swiss deep-sea freighters, a foreman for Swiss companies in Arabia, and a construction site manager for a Nigerian oligarch. He learns English, Arabic, and Hausa, acquires household staff and polo horses. And he converts to Islam. The unlikely biography of the now 70-year-old is a piece of contemporary history. Switzerland seen through the eyes of a citizen who came from the very bottom. Bernhard Odehnal, born in 1966, was an international editor for 'Weltwoche' and reported from the Balkans and the former Soviet Union for newspapers in Switzerland and Austria. Since 2004, he has been a correspondent for 'Tages-Anzeiger'.