The Ringmaster's Daughter

This is the story of Petter and his stories. Endowed with a vast and wild imagination, Petter makes a living selling concepts for novels, screen plays and dramas. The story of the book consists of recounts of Petter from his earliest childhood memories to the present time.

Petter did not grow up as any other child. He had a multitude of thoughts and stories criss-crossing through his brain that sometimes even he found it difficult to manage. As a child, rather than playing with other children he preferred to either watch them or simply sit alone and let his imagination run wild.

As he grew up, and with the loss of his mother, he started living alone. As a way of earning a living, Petter entertained the idea of selling his ideas of plots for novels to authors who are frustrated and maybe going through what is known as a writer's block. In this manner he managed to create such a large web of people who are his clients. This web even spreads internationally and finally ends up in "The Spider"'s - as Petter is to be known within the literary world - own fall from grace.

The underlying concept of this book is of Panina Manina, a fairy tale told by Petter to the love of his life and his daughter. Panina Manina, a trapeze artist in a famous circus falls down one day and breaks her neck. As the ringmaster comes to her aid and bends over her, he sees a pendant that he placed in a chain around his own daughter's neck when she was very small before she was swept away by a torrent. He identifies Panina Manina as his own daughter after so many years. It is the story that finally helps Petter to find his own long-lost daughter.

This is a different kind of book, the first time I came across this notion of selling off ideas for novels and for monetary purposes. It is an interesting read from the Norwegian, Jostein Gaarder.