The Horrific Sufferings Of The Mind-Reading Monster Hercules Barefoot : His wonderful love and his terrible hatred

Author(s): Carl-Johan Vallgren (tr from Swedish Paul & Veronica Britten- Austin)

General Fiction

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. This is a picaresque fable of the love that grows between Hercules and Henriette during their childhood, and which will entwine their fates for ever. Vallgren paints a cast of grotesques in a magical and atmospheric tour of nineteenth-century Europe: the swags and tails of the bordello, where Hercules is born; the phantasmagoria of the freak show, with which he travels; the sinister grandeur of the Jesuit monasteries, in which he finds both shelter and peril; the squalor of the asylum, where he finds only pain. The Horrific Sufferings of the Mind-reading Monster Hercules Barefoot tells of social oppression, official corruption and religious persecution, but is, at its heart, a marvellous love story. Moving, uplifting, at times dark and macabre, this novel stretches the bounds of imagination, presenting the bizarre as the everyday and leading you through it like a child, wide-eyed in wonder at a carnival. But though filled with curiosities, it is nevertheless a very human story of love, hate and raw emotion, and is the most extraordinary book you will read this year. First published in Swedish 2002; this translation 2005.

26.99 NZD

RRP 29.99 NZD (10% off)

Stock: 0


Add to Wishlist


Product Information

General Fields

  • : 9780099464396
  • : Vintage
  • : Vintage
  • : books

Special Fields

  • : Carl-Johan Vallgren (tr from Swedish Paul & Veronica Britten- Austin)
  • : Hardback
  • : 1