"Chop off my head and hawk it to the highest bidder. I'm the Anatomist's Dream, did you know? That'swhat they call me.In a small salt-mining town, Philbert is born with a 'taupe', a disfiguring inflammation of the skull.Abandoned by both parents and with only a pet pig for company, he eventually finds refuge andcompanionship in a travelling carnival, Maulwerf's Fair of Wonders, as it makes its annual migrationacross Germany bringing entertainment to a people beset by famine, repression and revolutionaryferment.Philbert soon finds a caring family in Hermann the Fish Man, Lita, the Dancing Dwarf, Frau Fettleheim,the Fattest Woman in the World and an assortment of 'freak show' artists, magicians and entertainers.But then Philbert meets Kwert, 'Tospirologist and Teller of Signs', and when he persuades the boy toundergo examination by the renowned physician and craniometrist, Dr Ullendorf, both Kwert andPhilbert embark on an altogether darker and more perilous journey that will have far-reachingconsequences for a whole nation."