diff --git a/src/calibre/ebooks/pdf/render/common.py b/src/calibre/ebooks/pdf/render/common.py
index d5f4b6a66b..8470a1b2db 100644
--- a/src/calibre/ebooks/pdf/render/common.py
+++ b/src/calibre/ebooks/pdf/render/common.py
@@ -100,11 +100,18 @@ class String(unicode):
         try:
             raw = s.encode('latin1')
             if raw.startswith(codecs.BOM_UTF16_BE):
-                raise UnicodeEncodeError('')
+                raw = codecs.BOM_UTF16_BE + s.encode('utf-16-be')
         except UnicodeEncodeError:
             raw = codecs.BOM_UTF16_BE + s.encode('utf-16-be')
         stream.write(b'('+raw+b')')
 
+class UTF16String(unicode):
+
+    def pdf_serialize(self, stream):
+        s = self.replace('\\', '\\\\').replace('(', r'\(').replace(')', r'\)')
+        raw = codecs.BOM_UTF16_BE + s.encode('utf-16-be')
+        stream.write(b'('+raw+b')')
+
 class Dictionary(dict):
 
     def pdf_serialize(self, stream):
diff --git a/src/calibre/ebooks/pdf/render/links.py b/src/calibre/ebooks/pdf/render/links.py
index 4d0d588771..2f2b179ff4 100644
--- a/src/calibre/ebooks/pdf/render/links.py
+++ b/src/calibre/ebooks/pdf/render/links.py
@@ -11,7 +11,7 @@ import os
 from urlparse import urlparse
 from urllib2 import unquote
 
-from calibre.ebooks.pdf.render.common import Array, Name, Dictionary, String
+from calibre.ebooks.pdf.render.common import Array, Name, Dictionary, String, UTF16String
 
 class Destination(Array):
 
@@ -131,7 +131,7 @@ class Links(object):
         a = self.anchors[path]
         dest = a.get(frag, a[None])
         item = Dictionary({'Parent':parentref, 'Dest':dest,
-                           'Title':String(toc.text or _('Unknown'))})
+                           'Title':UTF16String(toc.text or _('Unknown'))})
         return self.pdf.objects.add(item)