Cirkus

the long version

""He dreams of fire. The heated air rising around his arms, fire whooshing around his head, the burn crossing his forehead. He clutches the batons with his small fingers. Women gasp. The crowd applauds, and there, off to the side, Milada watches him. He performs for her."" "So begins Patti Frazee's astonishing debut novel, where enchantment and illusion casually commingle with reality as the Borefsky Brothers Circus makes its way across the American Midwest in the summer of 1900." "Mariana, the fortune teller, makes herself invisible and drifts through the nighttime circus, listening in on conversations and watching over her beloved Shanghai, a fire-breathing dwarf who closely guards his secrets, even from Mariana's second sight. Conjoined twins Atasha and Anna cling to each other and weep for their home and for their mother and father who sold them to the circus. Jakub, the circus manager and husband to Mariana, fears his wife's gifts, grieves his own failures, and drinks to forget it all. The stories and closely guarded histories of the troupe of performers dance around each other until a love affair between Shanghai and Atasha destroys the delicate balance." "As secrets are revealed and old wounds are opened, the consequences are unbearable to some and liberating to others. Cirkus is a haunting novel of devastating heartbreak and exquisite loveliness."--Jacket.