The Horrific Sufferings Of The Mind-Reading Monster Hercules Barefoot: His Wonderful Love and his Terrible Hatred (38 page)
Authors: Carl-Johan Vallgren
To me he was mainly great-grandfather, a relatively ordinary old man, short of stature, and with the lower half of his face hidden by a mask, but for those of us who knew him, he was part of our everyday life. We all loved him dearly and admired him for his goodness and generosity; and the grief we felt when he died was not of this world. He was one of the kindest and most loving people I have ever met, always close to laughter, but also to despair over the sorry state of our world.
Among the photographs which remain of him there is one I often take out and look at across the illusory distance to a moment in our existence we call time. It was taken one morning in August 1908 in Martha’s Vineyard. My grandfather’s father, Barefoot, is sitting in the arbour at a table laid for breakfast, surrounded by grandchildren and great-grandchildren. He is looking straight into the camera and one almost discerns a smile beneath his mask. His eyes, those dark, beautiful eyes, radiate a happiness that can only be communicated by the sign language of the deaf, where the look in the eyes is so important a part of the idiom.
I can see what that look in his eyes expresses: blind faith in love as a power so strong it can overcome death, and that he himself will soon, very soon, be reunited with Henriette Vogel, his beloved.
Tisbury, 1994
Jonathan Barefoot
This ebook is copyright material and must not be copied, reproduced, transferred, distributed, leased, licensed or publicly performed or used in any way except as specifically permitted in writing by the publishers, as allowed under the terms and conditions under which it was purchased or as strictly permitted by applicable copyright law. Any unauthorised distribution or use of this text may be a direct infringement of the author’s and publisher’s rights and those responsible may be liable in law accordingly.
Epub ISBN: 9781448113750
Version 1.0
Published by Vintage 2006
2 4 6 8 10 9 7 5 3 1
Copyright © Carl-Johan Vallgren 2002, 2005
English translation copyright © Paul and
Veronica Britten-Austin 2005
Carl-Johan Vallgren has asserted his right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988 to be identified as the author of this work
First published with the title
Den vidunderliga kärlekens historia
by
Albert Bonniers Förlag AB, Stockholm
First published in Great Britain in 2005 by
The Harvill Press
Vintage
Random House, 20 Vauxhall Bridge Road, London SW1V 2SA
Random House Australia (Pty) Limited
20 Alfred Street, Milsons Point, Sydney,
New South Wales 2061, Australia
Random House New Zealand Limited
18 Poland Road, Glenfield, Auckland 10, New Zealand
Random House (Pty) Limited
Isle of Houghton, Corner of Boundary Road & Carse O’Gowrie,
Houghton, 2198, South Africa
The Random House Group Limited Reg. No. 954009
A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
ISBN 9780099464396
