The Circus: A Novel

by Jonas Karlsson Narrated by Kirby Heyborne

Overview

A real-life vanishing act leaves one man looking for his missing friend in this*Kafkaesque new novel*from the author of*The Room*and*The Invoice.
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NAMED ONE OF THE MOST ANTICIPATED BOOKS OF 2020 BY The New York Times ¿ BookRiot ¿ The A.V. Club ¿ Gizmodo

The gentle, off-beat narrator of*The Circus*is perfectly content with his quiet life. By day he works in a bakery, and by night he obsessively organizes and reorganizes his record collection: it's all just the way he likes it. But when his childhood friend Magnus comes calling out of the blue, the contours of our narrator's familiar world begin to shift. On a visit to the circus together, Magnus volunteers to participate in the magician's disappearing act, and midway through the routine he vanishes. Is this part of the act? What's happened to Magnus? And who is it calling on the phone in the dead of night, breathing into the receiver, but never saying a word?
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Smart, sharply unsettling, and with its sleight of hand exquisitely kept,*The Circus*is a funhouse mirror of a read-one that ingeniously reveals the way we see ourselves and the stories we tell.

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

Praise for Jonas Karlsson’s The Invoice
 
“Karlsson expertly wrings humor from the contrast between the bizarre, increasingly alarming circumstances in which his narrators find themselves and their low-key, matter-of-fact responses.”—NPR
 
“A fable for the ages. [The Invoice] should be read alongside The Trial and Nineteen Eighty-Four as an antidote.”—Kirkus Reviews
 
Praise for The Room
 
“A reality-bending psychological profile with insights into the nature and importance of personal space.”—Publishers Weekly (starred review)
 
“Thoroughly enjoyable.”—The Guardian
 
“Brilliant.”—Financial Times (UK)

Product Details

BN ID:	2940173514684
Publisher:	Penguin Random House
Publication date:	01/28/2020
Edition description:	Unabridged

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