The Last Hiccup — Christopher Meades

“A strange and surprisingly touching novel about how people find good and evil where they look for them” (Booklist).
 
In 1930s Russia, an eight-year-old boy named Vladimir is suddenly stricken with a chronic case of the hiccups. He soon finds himself spirited away to a Moscow hospital by the famous physician Sergei Namestikov, who puts him through a series of extraordinary -- and often bizarre -- treatments in an effort to find a cure.
 
Then Sergei's chief medical rival, the brilliant Alexander Afiniganov, determines that beneath Vladimir's blank eyes lurks a pure, unbridled evil -- and takes steps to remove the child from polite society. Abandoned by everyone but his hiccups, Vladimir is about to embark on a journey that is funny, poignant, and surreal -- and that takes a close look at the nature of good and evil -- in this novel, a winner of the Canadian Authors Association Award for Fiction from the author of Hanna Who Fell From the Sky.
 
“A beautifully written novel, part folk tale, part parable.” -- Will Ferguson, author of Happiness