Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #207441 in Books
• Published on: 2006-04-06
• Binding: Paperback
• 288 pages

Synopsis
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.

From the Publisher
The story is charged, atmospheric, thought-provoking and bleakly skewed.' Daily Telegraph

About the Author
Carl-Johan Vallgren:
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 is the first novel to be translated into English. His novels have been translated into eleven languages. He lives in Stockholm.

Customer Reviews

Buy This Book.
Buy this book. You will not be disappointed. Beautifully translated, it is gripping from the first page to the last. Well written, it brought more than one tear to my eye.

Not a "Perfume"
I was intrigued as one of the reviews on the book said this was "a Perfume for a new generation"; and although it is beautifully written and translated it doesn't come up to the standard set by Perfume, probably my favourite book.
Set in the early 1800s, it mixes love and religion. It takes a while to get going, spending a while setting the scene, but it is an enjoyable read nonetheless although the ending was perhaps a little soft.

Utterly Enthralling!
This book was bought as a gift as I had noticed the title whilst walking past a book shop and was immediately intrigued. The title alone sets your mind racing to what the book could be about.
This is a truly awesome book(i know they say do not judge a book by its cover but in this case make the exception). It is different to anything I have ever read. It has been translated beautifully and the way its written just makes you delve deeper and deeper into it until you are lost in the weird, very hurtful, confusing but sometimes wonderful world of Hercules Barefoot.
This is not just another story of Quasimodo and its as far away from the bells of Notre Dame as you can get. Hercules, born with the most hideous deformities imaginable spends his life fighting one prejudice after another. He lives through torture, damnation, ridicule and basically a lot of the time pure evil, but he does all this in the pursuit of love. Does he find it? You will have to buy the book, but I can assure you, you will not regret doing so. This book will make you laugh, cry and gasp! It is definitely my book of the year so far.