A circus, promising to display the stuffed body of the largest
whale in the world, arrives in the dead of winter, prompting bizarre
rumours. Word spreads that the circus folk have a sinister purpose in
mind, and the frightened citizens cling to any manifestation of order
they can find - music, cosmology, fascism.
The novel's characters
are unforgettable: the evil Mrs. Eszter, plotting her takeover of the
town; her weakling husband; and Valuska, our hapless hero with his head
in the clouds, who is the tender centre of the book, the only pure and
noble soul to be found.
