title: Horrific Sufferings of the Mind-Reading Monster Hercules Barefoot: His Wonderful Love and His Terrible Hatred
author:  Carl-Johan Vallgren 
description: As its subtitle hints, Swedish author Vallgren's weirdly compelling first novel to be translated Stateside summons a world of light and dark, beauty and deformation. Set in the early 1800s, the story follows Hercule Barfuss, who is born deaf, dumb and grotesquely misshapen, with a "dark red cavity" for a face, in a German whorehouse. But he has a gentle, intelligent nature and a budding gift of telepathy, which reveals people's innermost, unacknowledged desires. Reared in the brothel, Hercule forms a deep bond with a beautiful girl, Henriette Vogel, who was born there the same night he was. After the loving pair is tragically separated at age 10, Hercule traverses Europe&mdash;living in a Jesuit monastery, an asylum and with a traveling freak show&mdash;persecuted everywhere as he seeks out Henriette. Along with Hercule's relentless search for Henriette, it is a sadistic cardinal's pursuit of Hercule ("a demon") that propels the novel. The book unravels, though, when Hercule, warped by hardship, embarks on a vengeful rampage. <I>(Apr.)</I> <BR>Copyright &copy; Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
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  MENAGERIE
  
  
  
  
  
  E. Stuart Marlowe
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  COPYRIGHT 2014 BY E. STUART MARLOWE
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
    
  
  
  Dedicated to our son Henry
  
  
  
  
  
  There may come a time when you believe that the world is overrun by ferocious
  Fangle Dangles, awful apfeleguts and nasty Ngau-Ngaus.
  
  
  Well yes, our dear Henry, monsters are real.
  
  
  But find peace of mind in the knowledge that they are all, in fact,
  exceedingly rare.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # Chapter One
  
  
  
  
  
  There were certain sensations that didn’t belong in this room – the razor-
  sharp blasts of wind mixed with sand for instance, the distant cries of panic
  – sensations that tried to bleed in but were fast pushed away. The bedroom was
  dark and quiet, the boy was perhaps seven years old. That’s how he remembered
  it. This is how it always recurred.
  
  
  Something was amiss in his dream. He was frightened. And with good reason. In
  spite of the phosphorescent stars glowing happily from the ceiling, the
  invi