Book description
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
and
Documents Concerning Rubashov the Gambler
have been translated into English. His novels have been translated into
eleven languages. He lives in Stockholm.
