HE IS ONE OF THE MOST HAUNTING CHARACTERS<br>IN ALL OF LITERATURE.<br><br>AT LAST THE EVOLUTION OF HIS EVIL<br>IS REVEALED.<br><br>Hannibal Lecter emerges from the nightmare of the Eastern Front, a boy in the snow, mute, with a chain around his neck. <br><br>He seems utterly alone, but he has brought his demons with him.<br><br>Hannibal's uncle, a noted painter, finds him in a Soviet orphanage and brings him to France, where Hannibal will live with his uncle and his uncle's beautiful and exotic wife, Lady Murasaki.<br><br>Lady Murasaki helps Hannibal to heal. With her help he flourishes, becoming the youngest person ever admitted to medical school in France.<br><br>But Hannibal's demons visit him and torment him. When he is old enough, he visits them in turn.<br><br>He discovers he has gifts beyond the academic, and in that epiphany, Hannibal Lecter becomes death's prodigy.<br><br><br><i>From the Hardcover edition.</i>