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Berengaria you were right. This book was very different to Miss Schmilla. But I have to say I enjoyed it as much. There is something to be said about a circus clown with the power to hear and see the world in sounds and music - especially as I am not too fond of clowns. But I digress.

The story has Kasper Krone looking for a missing girl. But it is more complex than that. The characters and prose are well developed. I could lay out quotes from almost every page that made me ponder or smile. Krone’s description of his encounter with Stilla while he is sitting on the toilet is sublime. The scene where he is shot and beaten reminded me of Monty Pythons Black Knight scene. Oh and the head butting nun.

‘From the loudspeakers at the outdoor cafe in the park he heard a saxophonist tackle the hopeless task of repaying some of our communal debt to Coltrane.��

‘She held out her hand; it was warm, dry and firm. She was in A-flat major. Under other circumstances he could have listened to her for hours.��

‘Poker was Kasper’s game, and had always been. Poker had depth and complexity like Bach’s music; a sure bet and a rhythmically played hand lasted about as long as one of his small choral arrangements. Bach would have been a great poker player, if he hadn’t been so busy.��

The children shook their heads.
‘You don’t look like Santa Claus.��
‘When spring comes,�� said Kasper, ‘then Santa gets his hair cut and his beard shaved off; he has his hair cut and his beard shaved off; he has his hair dyed, loses almost forty kilos, stables the reindeer, and lives in people’s drying attics.��

Like The Magus and Foucault’s Pendulum this is a book to be dusted off and reread from time to time.