Little Hands Clapping

First edition cover (with quote from Douglas Coupland)
Author	Dan Rhodes
Cover artist	David Roberts
Country	United Kingdom
Language	English
Publisher	Canongate Books
Publication date	4 February 2010
Media type	Print & eBook
Pages	320
ISBN	1-84767-529-8

Little Hands Clapping, is a novel by British author Dan Rhodes, published in 2010 by Canongate. Its title comes from a line in Robert Browning's poem The Pied Piper of Hamelin.

Plot introduction

The novel centres around a bizarre German museum dedicated to suicide; Herr Schmidt, its grim grey curator; and the respectable Doctor Ernst Frölicher and his shocking secret.

Various characters appear with short lifestories including the Luciano Pavarotti-obsessed founder of the museum and her Pavarotti-lookalike husband, Hulda the cleaner who believes she is doomed to Hell, and Madalena the suicidal Portuguese student.

Reception

• "Totally sick and brilliant, He sucks you into his world. I loved it." Douglas Coupland^[1]
• "Almost every page of Little Hands Clapping has superb quirks or asides which will have the reader laughing. A sublime, brilliant novel", The Scotsman^[2]
• "It should please cynical idealists and idealistic cynics alike." Financial Times^[3]