Honey for the Bears

First edition (publ. Heinemann)

Honey for the Bears is a 1963 novel by Anthony Burgess.

Plot summary

British antique dealer Paul Hussey and his American wife Belinda travel to Leningrad for a holiday but with a suitcase of drilon dresses, which he plans to sell on the Soviet black market as a favor to the widow of his recently deceased friend Robert. Belinda develops a rash during the trip over and is taken to a hospital in Leningrad, leaving Paul to fend for himself while suspicious Soviet agents tail him.

Finding the USSR quite different from his preconceptions, Hussey has various sexual adventures — with both men and women — and seeks to secure the freedom of a descendant of a dissident composer.