Little Hands Clapping - Tapa blanda

Disturbing and delightful. * * The Telegraph * * A macabre, brilliant and terrifying novel. Good strong stuff. -- Michael Holroyd * * Guardian * * Genius ... A sublime, brilliant novel. * * The Scotsman * * A remarkable success. * * The Spectator * * While never losing sight of the monstrousness that ensnares his characters, Rhodes remains gloriously, mordantly funny. * * The Independent * * After reading Rhodes's book, many little hands should be clapping very loudly indeed. * * The Observer * * An amusing fable about thwarted altruism and good intentions gone askew. It should please cynical idealists and idealistic cynics alike. * * Financial Times * * Just trust us on this one... he really is one of the most inventive authors around. ***** * * HEAT * * Reading it is like taking a deep breath into the lungs of your imagination. * * Scotland on Sunday * * The sense that this is a fairy story, with all the implications of a moral message and an investigation of human nature that come with it, runs through the book and is heightened by its title . . . His gentle yet clever telling of the monstrous events at the museum finds humanity in the horror and makes his characters' unpleasant antics seem almost whimsical . . . After reading Rhodes's book, many little hands should be clapping very loudly indeed. -- Alice Fisher * * OBSERVER * * Combining heady romance, nihilism and despair, human failings, and a fair amount of spider munching, this is a unique, sparkling story. Dan Rhodes is a writer to treasure. * * LIST * * Cleverly interweaves a lovers' story with the dark, disturbing life of an old caretaker. -- Christina Koning * * Times * * As funny as it is macabre. * * Sunday Herald * * This is the kind of deliciously wicked tale that looks simple on the surface, but which covers hidden depths. A small masterpiece. -- Lesley MacDowall * * Herald * * A spooky, brilliant read from a magical storyteller. * * Heat * * This dark and curious fable is leavened by preposterous imagination and an airy wit. You may well, embarrassingly, laugh aloud. * * Independent on Sunday * *

Once upon a time, in a room above a German museum, there lived an old man . . . A caretaker by day, by night he enjoys the sound of silence, broken only by the occasional crunch of a spider between his teeth. However, the old man's solitude is disturbed as unusual activities at the museum start to attract attention. A pair of young and outrageously beautiful lovers, a baker's son with a passion for the euphonium, and a dog called Hans are just some of the innocents pulled into Rhodes's mesmerising world.