In the tradition of such great Latin American magic realists as Jorge Amada, Sergio Kokis recreates the magic world of a child in Brazil. The novel is told from the point of view of a Brazilian painter in exile somewhere in the northern climes -- a man who longs for the warmth and vibrancy of his childhood. But his childhood and adolescence were not easy. Torn between a deeply religious (and superstitious) mother and his father, a man of science and reason, the young man survives his home life, life at boarding school, and life abroad to become an artist and a person in his own right. Funhouse (Le pavillon des miroirs in French) has won four major literary awards in Quebec: Grand Prix du livre de Montreal, Prix de L'Academie des lettres du Quebec, Prix Quebec-Paris, and Prix Desjardins.