This book brought to mind a photography exhibit I saw a few years ago of deformed and scarred people that permitted the viewer to stare and study in a way that we normally cannot. We see the workings of Ivan's mind in this well-written novel about a seventeen-year-old: his thoughts and emotions, his adolescent feelings, and even is falling in love. He is trapped in a severely deformed body in an asylum for mutant children in Belarus. There is a masterful combination of humor and tragedy.