The story has an obsessive drive

- Christopher Priest, Guardian

A <i>Perfume</i> 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

Se alle

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

A picaresque, grotesque and magical novel

Guardian

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.

Les mer

On a stormy night in 1813, a doctor is called to the aid of two prostitutes in childbirth.

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.

Les mer
The story is charged, atmospheric, thought-provoking and bleakly skewed' - Daily Telegraph

Produktdetaljer

ISBN
9780099464396
Publisert
2006
Utgiver
Vintage Publishing; Vintage
Vekt
203 gr
Høyde
198 mm
Bredde
129 mm
Dybde
18 mm
Aldersnivå
01, G, 01
Språk
Product language
Engelsk
Format
Product format
Heftet

Om bidragsyterne

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.