The Horrific Sufferings Of The Mind-Reading Monster Hercules Barefoot: His Wonderful Love and his Terrible Hatred

Description

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.

CARL-JOHAN VALLGREN was born in 1964. He is the author of eight novels, of which The Horrific Sufferings of the Mind-reading Monster Hercules Barefoot...was the first novel to be appear in English. His work has been translated into eleven languages. He lives in Stockholm.

"The story has an obsessive drive" -- Christopher Priest Guardian "A Perfume for a new generation. Vallgren conveys readers through [Hercule and Henriette's] wonderful love as well as their terrible hatred with equal relish and aplomb. Tremendous" Time Out "Challenging and shocking" Guardian "The new cult read" Vogue "Vallgren's Gothic parable, rich in folk-myth symbolism, highlights the interconnectivity of linguistics, psychology and religion while never compromising the blood-racing pace of a rollicking adventure story" Metro