LONGLISTED FOR THE BAILEYS WOMEN'S PRIZE FOR FICTION 2016 'Chop off my head and hawk it to the highest bidder. I'm the Anatomist's Dream, did you know? That's what they call me.' ... In a small salt-mining town, Philbert is born with a disfiguring inflammation of the skull. With only a pet pig for company, he finds refuge in a traveling carnival.
A sumptuous feast for the senses that chronicles the early life of a very special boy as he makes a fantastic and epic journey with a travelling carnical across the dark and troubled landscape of 1840s Germany. A book that will be savoured by fans of Mervyn Peake's "Gormenghast" trilogy, Erin Morgenstern's "The Night Circus" or Patrick Suskind's "Perfume".