The Wonders

by Paddy O'Reilly
This book, by an Australian author is about three people that become part of a modern day travelling freakshow.
Leon needs a heart transplant and his life is saved by a doctor and his wife who give him a mechanical heart, if he promises never to divulge the details.  The doctor dies within a year of performing the surgery.
Kathryn receives a treatment for Parkinson's the side effect of which causes lambs wool to grow all over her body.
Christos a performance artist has mechanical parts implanted in his body so that he can have wings inserted in his back.

A woman, with a background in a circus, approaches the three people to be part of an act she wants to call The Wonders.  She has a large home and acreage where she rescues wild animals, e.g. monkeys, elephants, etc.  Her plan is to have the three wonders do little performances to very select audiences.  They become very famous and the celebrity of course leads to papparazzi and security issues.  They seem to enjoy living the high life, especially Christos.  Kathryn is the most troubled, religious groups seem to target her as an abomination.  She had an abusive husband and is recovering from that.   The group gets along reasonably well but Christos is a bit of a primadonna and causes some conflicts.   Not everyone is happy with what they are doing, handicapped people feel they are exploiting and thus demeaning the handicapped.

Some private photos turn up in the media/internet and this upsets them. They later find out that their publicist has done this to fuel interest in them.  They are upset with him, but don't do anything to stop or reprimand him.

Leon always felt a bit weird because of his heart and never thought he would ever be loved.  He falls in love with the doctor hired to look after them and they eventually marry.  He is so happy to be loved.

The group travels and gets rich over several years.  They are planning to wind down the act and go their separate ways.... but they plan  few more shows.  They are asked to travel out into the desert in Dubai.  While they are driving through the desert their vehicle hits a IUD/landmine and their vehicle overturns.  They are all shaken up but Christos is quite badly injured.  Was this an accident?  Or an intentional attempt on their lives?  Christos eventually recovers and they plan  few final shows.

One day they are walking through a long hallway, in the bowels of a hotel or convention centre and Kathryn is kidnapped.  They get a ransom demand and are prepared to pay up but Kathryn has been injured by her kidnappers and dies.  This shocks them all to the core.  The public reaction is a lot of grief but also some celebration by fundamentalists.  Leon has been trying to track down the wife of the doctor who operated on him and eventually she contacts him to tell him that the battery in his chest may run down soon and it cannot be replaced.  He is so upset, he assumed he would have a long life with his wife after the wonders.

The remaining wonders are upset at Kathryn's death but decide to continue with a few more performances.  It becomes obvious that the fickle celebrity hungry public are losing interest in the wonders and switching their attention to other people.  They are at one of their final public performances.  A "fan" in the side of the red carpet has come because she is convinced that Kathryn died because Leon wanted her heart.  She wants to kill Leon to avenge Kathryn.  She makes an attempt to stab Christos, but Leon sees what she plans to do and jumps in the way getting wounded by her knife. 

He is happy to have survived with only a minor wound.  He feels glad that he has finally done something useful with his life.  He and his wife settle down on their new house in Australia.  He loves walking around the property and enjoys seeing all the life around him.  This he decides is what life should be about.  Christos has left to pursue a life of more performance art.

I think the book raises issues of what it means to be human, the meaning of life, to what lengths will we go to be alive/healthy?  What will people give up to be healthy? famous? rich?  What do you do after the public loses interest in you?  Is it worth the loss of freedom/privacy?