Description:

"It’s not my intention to write a paper about you," says the visitor to Le Pétomane, the famous showman of 19th-century France, "but, rather, to ask you to take me as your pupil in that inimitable art of which monsieur is both master and forerunner." So begins this beautiful and imaginative novella which is half Morel’s Invention and half The Venus d’Ille. The visitor is none other than the well-known Dr. Charles Beauclair, the director of an asylum for the insane and a reputable scientist of his time. Why would Beauclair want to learn the special skills of Le Pétomane, who earns his living by breaking wind in front of a public? And who is that lady in gray he meets at the Jardin de Plantes? And what role does Mademoiselle Liane de Pougy, the celebrated courtesan, play in this drama of passions and intrigues? About the Author Siu Kam Wen was born in China but grew up in South America. He has published two collections of short stories and two novels in Spanish. He lives in Hawaii.