Black Books, The elephant and the balloon short version, by paradox

The original draft of The Elephant and the Balloon was extremely lengthy at 1030 pages. Although it was aimed at a young audience, the book seemed to be very advanced for children, revolving around an academic who survived the Stalinist purges, his daughter whose marraige is collapsing and a journalist who suspects the academic was never in Russia at the time and falls madly in love with the academic s daughter. Characters : Unidentified: elephant rhino alligator monkey