The Invisible Circus - Softcover

Jennifer Egan

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0330489119 ISBN 13: 9780330489119

Publisher: Pan Macmillan, 2001

Synopsis

The high ideals and inevitable compromises of the 1960s form the background to this acclaimed first novel. Phoebe O'Connor, eighteen years old in the summer of 1978, is too young to have known the sixties, but old enough to wistfully long for what is now past. Living in San Francisco with her mother, Phoebe has always been obsessed by the memory of her charismatic older sister, Faith, a passionate flower child who died in Italy in 1970. Searching for the truth about her death and life, Phoebe impulsively follows Faith's trail from San Francisco through Europe, culminating in the very place where she leapt to her death. The truth that Phoebe discovers on her journey is larger and darker than one death, going straight to the ambiguous heart of a generation that tried to follow its dreams of freedom. `Egan writes well about her chosen period, conveying its atmosphere of self-conscious decadence with unerring accuracy' The Times `A trip that takes the reader through stunning emotional terrain' New Yorker `A real page turner. Dramatic, suspenseful and beautifully written' Robert Stone

About this title

From the Publisher

The hope and heartbreak of the Sixties still linger in America's consciousness. In this breathtaking debut, Jennifer Egan brings to life the seductive pull of that era as it exerts itself on two sisters, separated by a decade, who take enormous risks to personify its ideals. It is 1978. Phoebe O'Connor, 18, runs off to Europe seeking answers about the tragedy that has haunted her family for eight years: the sudden dead of her older sister Faith while in Italy. To Phoebe, Faith epitomizes the youthful, chaotic freedom of the Sixties, and imitating her becomes Phoebe's way of trying to elevate herself from a life that seems drab and unsatisfying compared to the vivid spectacle that was Faith's. Once in Europe, Phoebe follows the itinerary Faith spelled out in postcards from her fatal trip, landing in London, living in a hostel in Amsterdam, taking a tab of LSD in Paris. But instead of the millennial excitement that Faith had sensed in 1960s Europe, Phoebe encounters disappointment and ennui. And when Faith's old lover joins Phoebe to retrace those last days in Italy, Phoebe glimpses the human price that her sister paid in following her uncompromising quest for personal liberation. With its coolly graceful prose and mastery of narrative, The Invisible Circus is an unforgettable first novel by a writer of uncommon ability.

About the Author

Jennifer Egan was born in Chicago and grew up in San Francisco. Her short stories have appeared in The New Yorker, GQ, Mademoiselle, Ploughshares, and elsewhere, and she is the author of a short story collection entitled Emerald City. She lives in New York City.

About this edition

• Publisher: Pan Macmillan
• Publication date: 2001
• ISBN 10: 0330489119
• ISBN 13: 9780330489119
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 352