This is the first English publication of a major work by one of Belgium’s greatest writers – Franz Hellens. As a prime example of his «fantastic realism,» this novel takes its narrator-hero, Théophile, through a series of adventures that range from the touchingly down-to-earth to the extravagantly bizarre. With its rich multiplicity of character and incident, as well as a narrative that surprises the reader at every turn, this book is an ideal introduction to a unique, and too long neglected, voice in twentieth-century literature.