The Man with the Lion's Head

They say that happiness is a vocation. That of Hector Bibrowski, born in a circus at the end of the 19th century with hair covering his entire face, does not make him happy, but he did not choose it. Like his father before him, he will tour European cities in the company of saber swallowers, Siamese twins, trunk men and other beasts of the fair. But everyone has eyes only for "the man with the lion's head" who, behind his wild face, is passionate about literature and able to converse like the most learned of gentlemen. Soon, the opportunity to join the biggest circus in the United States takes him to modern New York where the skyscrapers and the disproportionate ambitions of men rise.