The Horrific Sufferings Of The Mind-Reading Monster Hercules Barefoot
Author: Vallgren, Carl-Johan
ISBN: 9780099464396
Publisher: RANDOM HOUSE UK
Year first published: 01 Jun 2006
Pages: 288
Format: Paperback / softback
The story is charged, atmospheric, thought-provoking and bleakly skewed' - Daily Telegraph
On a stormy night in 1813, a doctor is called to the aid of two prostitutes in childbirth. To one is born a healthy girl, Henriette, to the other, what can only be described as a monster: a boy, Hercules, deaf-mute and hideously deformed, and with the power to read minds.
As he tells the story of Hercules' bizarre and colourful life, which leads him from the bordello of his birth to a travelling freak show and then a Jesuit monastery and an asylum, Vallgren paints a magical picture of nineteenth-century Europe. This picaresque fable is filled with curiosities but is, at its heart, an extraordinary and unforgettable love story.
ISBN: 9780099464396
Publisher: RANDOM HOUSE UK
Year first published: 01 Jun 2006
Pages: 288
Format: Paperback / softback
The story is charged, atmospheric, thought-provoking and bleakly skewed' - Daily Telegraph
On a stormy night in 1813, a doctor is called to the aid of two prostitutes in childbirth. To one is born a healthy girl, Henriette, to the other, what can only be described as a monster: a boy, Hercules, deaf-mute and hideously deformed, and with the power to read minds.
As he tells the story of Hercules' bizarre and colourful life, which leads him from the bordello of his birth to a travelling freak show and then a Jesuit monastery and an asylum, Vallgren paints a magical picture of nineteenth-century Europe. This picaresque fable is filled with curiosities but is, at its heart, an extraordinary and unforgettable love story.
