The Horrific Sufferings Of The Mind-Read

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.