_________________________ HANNIBAL LECTER WASN'T BORN A MONSTER. HE WAS MA DE ONE. Hannibal Lecter emerges from the nightmare of the Eastern Front of Wo rld War II, a boy in the snow, mute, with a chain around his neck. He will not s peak of what happened to him and his family. He seems utterly alone, but he has brought his demons with him. Hannibal's uncle, a noted painter, finds him in a Soviet orphanage and brings him to France. There, Hannibal lives with his uncle and his uncle's beautiful and exotic wife, Lady Murasaki, who helps him to heal - and flourish. But Hannibal's demons are not so easily defeated. Throughout hi s young life, they visit him and torment him. When he is old enough, he visits t hem in turn - and in the fog of traumatic memory, he discovers that he has gifts far beyond what he imagined...