{"product_id":"books-the-horrific-sufferings-of-the-mind-reading-monste-by-c-vallgren","title":"The Horrific Sufferings Of The Mind-Reading Monste","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. 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.","brand":"World of Books ","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":53674335895825,"sku":null,"price":0.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/9781843431510.jpg?v=1781531240","url":"https:\/\/www.worldofbooks.com\/products\/books-the-horrific-sufferings-of-the-mind-reading-monste-by-c-vallgren","provider":"World of Books ","version":"1.0","type":"link"}