The Circus at the End of the World - Softcover

Brackenbury, Rosalind

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0692212639 ISBN 13: 9780692212639

Publisher: New Atlantian Library, The, 2014

Synopsis

Here is the mesmerizing story a boy's search for his mother, a woman's desire to explore the world, and a man's longing for love. It begins and ends in Tasmania as the 20th century becomes the 21st and includes juggling, magic and teenage romance.

About this title

From the Publisher

POETRY AND FICTION MEET THROUGH A JUGGLER:
A YOUNG MAN SEARCHES OUT HIS DESTINY

In Rosalind Brackenbury's new novel, The Circus at the End of the World, Markie is a young juggler who inherited his skill from Ulla, his absent mother. Left with Ulla's lover Louis, a gifted painter who only paints gum trees, Markie grows up in the Tasmanian countryside until he takes charge of his destiny and sets out to the mainland and on to Paris and London to search for his mother. Juggling gives Markie the strength and vision to make daring moves and assertions, and it's juggling that gives Markie the ability to finally reunite his family.

As Markie emerges into manhood, he falls in love with Tania, a woman he meets while juggling on the streets of Sydney. Markie is an exceptional young man, wise and sure-footed, and instilled with a charming confidence as he steps into the new physical and emotional person he finds is himself. And Rosalind Brackenbury conveys the startling changes of a maturing man with the assurance and grace that make this journey enchanting and true. We're sure Markie is correct in his quest for Tania, who has also lost her mother. And we understand that Louis' refusal to search for Ulla--to stay put with the hope that she will return--is just as correct as Markie's choice to leave. As the characters are brought together there is a sense of inevitability and completeness and the thrill of events made right.

Brackenbury is also a poet, and there is a poet's use of language here that makes every work count and adds a quality of magical realism to The Circus at the End of the World. But this is a book that is grounded in reality--we can believe in the characters and their stories and root for them as they find their way in the world.

From the Back Cover

A magically written, haunting tale of a boy's search for himself...
The Circus at the End of the World
Praise for Rosalind Brackenbury's The Beautiful Routes of the West

"This is a book of exquisite passion and clear conviction. It is a celebration of the intimate distances shared by lovers and the fragile equations that govern our lives... This is easily the best book of poems I've read in a long time... These words, these wonderful, ennobling generous words, will last, thank goodness, forever." --Bud Navero, Solares Hill

"Brackenbury's native poetic sense [is] balanced by her capacity to tease out, and fulfill, the reader's expectations." --Publishers Weekly

"Wandering unexpectedly into such a bookroom as Ms. Brackenbury has created provides such an undiminished pleasure that one understands once again and instantly why it is that one reads books... She talks of lovers and of mothers, of friends and of necessities. Her poems almost run together like so many neglected candles on an altar, and yet each provides a blessing we remain conscious of, and our pleasure does not diminish as we proceed. This is the rarest thing in the world." --Mandrake Poetry Review

About this edition

• Publisher: New Atlantian Library, The
• Publication date: 2014
• ISBN 10: 0692212639
• ISBN 13: 9780692212639
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 266