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Read an Excerpt


THE CIRCUS TRAIN





AMITA PARIKH


PAPERBACK

December 6, 2022 | ISBN 9780593539989

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EBOOK

December 6, 2022 | ISBN 9780593539996

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AUDIOBOOK DOWNLOAD

December 6, 2022 | ISBN 9780593630327

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ABOUT THE BOOK

International Bestseller and #1 LibraryReads Pick

Water for Elephants meets The Night Circus in this World War II debut about a
magnificent travelling circus, a star-crossed romance, and one girl’s
coming-of-age during the darkest of times.

“A powerful reminder that to live is not just to survive, but to be seen and
known for ourselves.” —Pam Jenoff, author of The Orphan’s Tale

When all is lost, how do you find the courage to keep moving forward?

1938. Lena Papadopoulos has never quite found her place within the circus, even
as the daughter of the extraordinary headlining illusionist, Theo. Brilliant and
curious, Lena—who uses a wheelchair after a childhood bout with polio—yearns for
the real-world magic of science and medicine, her mind stronger than the
limitations placed on her by society. Then her unconventional life takes an
exciting turn when she rescues Alexandre, an orphan with his own secrets and a
mysterious past.

As World War II escalates around them, their friendship blossoms into something
deeper while Alexandre trains as the illusionist’s apprentice. But when Theo and
Alexandre are arrested and made to perform in a town for Jews set up by the
Nazis, Lena is separated from everything she knows. Forced to make her own way,
Lena must confront her doubts and dare to believe in the impossible—herself.
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PRAISE FOR THE CIRCUS TRAIN

People’s Book of the Week January 2023
One of Washington Post’s 10 Noteworthy Books for December 2022
One of BookRiot’s 8 New Historical Fiction Reads Set During and After WWII
One of Library Journal’s Top 20 Fall Debut Novels
One of BookBub’s Best Historical Fiction Coming Out This December
One of The Globe and Mail’s 100 Best Books of 2022
 
“A sweeping love story set amid a travelling circus and the horrors of WWII. As
the Nazis encroach, the performers struggle to survive betrayals and
heartbreaking loss, all leading to a spinning-plates grand finale with an
irresistible message: Finding your true self (and true love) is the greatest
wonder of all.” –People

“A passionate and gripping tale of unlikely alliances and hidden strengths, and
a powerful reminder that to live is not just to survive, but to be seen and
known for ourselves.” —Pam Jenoff, author of The Woman With the Blue Star

“Magic, love, destiny, and illusion combine with the glitter of 20th century
circus life and the heartbreak of war….A powerful tale of hope in the face of
tragedy and great love in the face of staggering loss…Extraordinary debut.”
—Kristin Harmel, author of The Book of Lost Names and The Forest of Vanishing
Stars

“A friendship turns into something more just as the Nazis are zeroing in on the
traveling show.” —Washington Post

“Immersive and intricately plotted…Parikh has created a carefully researched
historical debut whose bighearted, sensitive protagonist makes the reader’s
emotional journey well worth it. Lively and richly detailed.” —Kirkus Reviews

“[A] multilevel story of friendship, love, and survival spanning the World War
II era…It is Parikh’s sensitive eye toward the reality of living with polio in
the 1930s to 1950s that is the real heart of this romantic tale.” —Library
Journal

“Fascinating…Parikh’s extensive historical research adds authenticity to the
lives of the circus performers as well as Lena’s disability, and the characters’
arcs highlight the ever-present dangers in WWII Europe and make palpable the
strength of friendship. Fans of historical fiction will be drawn to this
page-turner.” —Publishers Weekly

“Parikh creates storytelling magic in her absorbing tale of a young woman
discovering her own capabilities.” —Booklist

“The juxtaposition of the magical and mysterious circus with the bleakness of
pre-WWII Europe is enrapturing in this unique take on a well-worn time period.”
—Buzzfeed

“This engaging debut is one of magic and love, tragedy and loss, resiliency and
agency.” —Ms. Magazine

"A dazzling and delightful debut." —Ellen Keith, author of The Dutch Wife

"Sit back and enjoy as this magical story transports you through war-torn
Europe, demonstrating how family can be found in the most unconventional ways."
—Shilpi Somaya Gowda, author of The Secret Daughter

“Deeply entertaining and enchanting….A page-turner that holds onto its secrets
until its satisfying conclusion. This richly drawn and captivating novel is a
must-read for fans of historical fiction.”—Constance Sayers, author of The
Ladies of the Secret Circus
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Excerpt


THE CIRCUS TRAIN

Chapter One
September 1938—London, England

"How many do you think there are?"

"D'you think any of them are handsome?"

"Trust you, Suze, to ask that!"

Lena Papadopoulos stared at the two girls standing a few feet in front of her.
They were gathered at the end of the hallway that led to the circus director's
study, trying their best to gauge what was happening behind the closed doors.

Laura, an acrobat from Brighton, pulled her long blond hair into a ponytail and
crouched down on the plush blue carpet. She was what the director, Horace,
called a circus chameleon, possessing the rare ability to slip into any number
of acts-aerial silks, trapeze, contortion-on a moment's notice.

"Maybe I can spot something from this angle." She splayed herself flat on her
stomach and rested her chin in the tiny gap where the carpet met the cool
marbled tile that made up the study's foyer. Lena thought she looked like an
elegant, upside-down starfish.

"Oh, do get up! This is pointless," Suze moaned, a spray of springy red curls
bouncing madly around her face. Suze had joined the circus in Dublin a year ago
and was training to be a water ballerina. She jutted her hip out and glanced at
Laura brushing lint from her leotard. "I dare you to go up there."

"No thanks."

"Go on," Suze cajoled.

"No." Laura stretched her slender arms overhead and arched her rib cage forward.

Suze pouted and began kicking at the hallway baseboards, her bright green eyes
roving around impishly before settling on Lena.

"Why hello, Lena. Didn't notice you there."

Lena blushed. She hadn't realized Suze even knew her name. "Hi," she squeaked,
tentatively inching herself forward. A wide smile spread across Suze's face.

"How'd you like to play a game?" She pointed toward Horace's study. "If you go
up there and see if there are any handsome boys, I'll give you a shilling."

"Suze," Laura warned.

"I'd like to play," Lena answered, grateful for the chance to be included.

A satisfied smile settled on Suze's face and she nodded toward the study.
"Whenever you're ready."

Lena took a deep breath and began rolling herself forward. As she crossed over
from the carpet onto the smooth marble, she felt her stomach turn somersaults
and told herself firmly not to mess up. She had a chance to be a part of Suze's
friend group. Everyone loved Suze. She was like a firefly, her magnetic
temperament attracting the attention of boys and girls alike. As she drew closer
to the double oak doors, Lena imagined what it would be like to sit next to Suze
at meals and have those same children clamoring to speak with her.

Horace's study was housed in its own carriage, styled in a way that one would
expect from the wealthy entertainment impresario. A giant spotlight shone from
each side of the doors, ensuring that whenever Horace entered or exited, he was
always the center of attention. A tiny row of hand-painted blue-and-gold tiles
ran around the perimeter of the foyer. In the center, a stunning Ming vase,
crafted from the finest porcelain, sat on a stone pedestal. The marble floor had
been imported from a quarry in Italy, and the space just outside the doors was
inlaid with a custom mosaic emblem of Horace's initials.

Lena came to a halt outside the entrance, positioning herself so that she could
peer directly into the keyhole that was level with her line of sight.

"Well?" Suze whispered loudly.

Lena squinted, pushing one of the blue velvet tassels that hung from the brass
door knockers out of the way. She could make out two young girls, a boy who
looked to be a bit older than her, a set of older boys who were probably
teenagers, a few adults, some children, and a mother jiggling her baby in her
arms.

"I think I see him. Tall, black hair? Holding juggling balls?"

"That's him!" Suze nodded vigorously. "What's he saying?"

Lena placed her ear against the keyhole and tried to listen. While she waited,
she thought about the inaugural dinner to be held that evening, the marquee
event that kicked off the World of Wonders tour. Every year, Horace threw a
lavish feast in the grand dining hall before the tour commenced. To be accepted
into the World of Wonders was a prestigious thing, and Horace saw to it that no
expense was spared. Last year's dinner had an Alice in Wonderland theme and
featured dishes like mock turtle soup, glorious icebox cakes in every shape and
size, and glasses of champagne with little tags that read Drink Me. After the
meal, everyone had spilled outside, engaging in games of croquet with wooden
mallets designed to look like flamingos and running through a maze that had been
decorated with bushes of white roses splattered with brilliant splashes of red.
This year's theme was the classic Russian fairy tale The Firebird, and Lena
could hardly wait, remembering the fat stacks of fluffy blini she'd seen Mario
preparing earlier in the kitchen.

"Suppose I do like one of them. What of it?"

Lena refocused on the task at hand, straining to catch the new recruits' words.
But they had moved around in the study and she wasn't having any luck hearing,
so she looked through the keyhole again and tried to lip-read.

"Remember that Jamie fellow? A fine mess you got yourself into!" Laura scolded.
"All I'm saying is you don't want a repeat-"

Suddenly Lena drew back sharply. "Quick! They're coming!"

Suze and Laura took off like lightning, sprinting away from Lena toward a set of
heavy blue velvet drapes farther down the hall. It was only after they'd reached
the safety of the hanging fabric that Laura looked back, realizing what they'd
done. Her face fell as she watched Lena furiously trying to maneuver her chair
away from the door.
 
"Lena! The vase!" Laura jerked her head toward the pedestal.

Lena twisted her head, her eyes falling on the vase. It wouldn't hide her
completely, but she didn't have any other options.

"Laura!" Suze whispered loudly from behind the lush folds. "Leave her!"

From her position in the foyer, exposed beyond belief, Lena caught Laura's eye,
noting the pity on her face.

I'm sorry, Laura mouthed, before diving behind the drapes with a speed and grace
that Lena would never have.

Lena shook her head and tried to move, intent on reaching the vase. But her
right wheel appeared to be stuck.

"Come on," she muttered, bending over to see what was wrong. "Why won't you
move?" Then she noticed that there was a small groove between the tiles where
her wheel had gotten stuck.

"Lena!" Laura's voice echoed down the hallway and Lena looked up to see the
golden knob of Horace's door twisting. Out of ideas and time, she sat up and
pushed extra hard, moving herself backward at a fast clip. Good! she said to
herself. If I can just get away from the doors, she thought. That's it. Almost
there. She stole a quick glance forward. Horace had opened the door but was
exiting with his back toward her. She just needed a few more seconds.

"As I said, dinner will begin-"

Crash.

Horace came to an abrupt halt, and the frightened shouts of the new circus
members filled the foyer. From her place a few feet away, Lena squeezed her eyes
shut. But when she finally dared to look, her heart sank. Tiny bits of
blue-and-white porcelain lay scattered all over the tiles.

"Lena!" Horace boomed. "What have you done?"

Out of the corner of her eye, Lena saw the tips of Suze's red hair disappear
behind the curtains. "It was an accident," she said, forcing herself to look at
Horace.

He was down on his knees, picking at the hundreds of pieces in front of him.
"Have you any idea how expensive this was?"

"I'm sorry," Lena whispered, wishing she could sink into the floor. She knew
this wasn't the first impression he wanted to give the new performers. Indeed,
the dozen or so people who'd been in Horace's study were now staring at her
uneasily.

"What's wrong with her?" A young girl pointed at Lena.

From the floor, Horace stood up with much difficulty, brushing bits of porcelain
dust from his bespoke midnight-blue suit jacket. "Everyone, I'd like you to meet
Lena, the daughter of our renowned illusionist, Theo Papadopoulos."

Lena cringed, wishing Horace would let her go. She knew what was coming next
and, sure enough, the question landed right on target.

"How'd she get that way? Not on account of your circus, was it?" A young man who
Lena surmised was a knife thrower, from the set of blades that gleamed in a bag
slung over his shoulder, eyed her suspiciously.

"Of course not," Horace replied hastily. "We uphold the highest standards of
safety at the Beddington and Sterling World of Wonders. In nearly a decade of
operation, we have yet to lose a performer to a long-term injury. Sprains and
the occasional break are to be expected in this business. But Lena," he
continued, pointing to her like she was an exhibit at a museum, "tragically, was
born this way."

"Oh my," one of the women whispered.

"Still. We count ourselves lucky to have her on board," Horace said, his voice
full of false care. Lena swallowed. She wasn't afraid of Horace, but she'd
always gotten the feeling that he viewed her as a never-ending bill he had to
pay in order to keep her father happy. "Everyone, I apologize for the
disruption. You'll find your carriage assignments on your key tags. I invite all
of you to start getting settled in. As for you"-he turned to Lena, his eyes
gleaming with contempt-"I trust you can keep yourself out of harm's way until
the evening's festivities have concluded?"
 
Lena nodded and rolled her chair away, not bothering to glance back at the
staring band of performers.

****

"What time do you think it will end?" Lena asked. It was a few hours later and
her governess, Clara Smith, had just finished braiding her hair and was now
tying a length of midnight-blue ribbon to the ends.

"Why d'you ask?"

Lena pointed to the book on her nightstand. "I'm at the part where Alice meets
the Cheshire Cat."

Clara chuckled. "Might I suggest you forget about reading for tonight and try to
make a friend or two? There's bound to be a few new children on board."

Lena frowned. "They won't like me."

"They don't know you. If you talked to them, you might be pleasantly surprised."

Lena shook her head, wondering at what point adults forgot what it was like to
be young. "I won't. They'll only pretend to be nice in front of all the
grown-ups. Then they'll go back to ignoring me," she explained, reaching back to
feel the silky ribbon in her hair.

"That's not true."

"It is!" Lena insisted. "And grown-ups do the same. I know because Johannes
pretends to like everybody, but as soon as they're gone, he starts making
faces."

Clara burst out laughing and Lena smiled at her governess in the mirror. Clara
wasn't anything like the stuffy, uptight governesses Lena read about in her
books. She'd grown up in a place in London called Fulham and had come into
Lena's life three years ago. Fed up with the subpar choice of suitors who kept
calling at her family home and not wishing to waste her years of education,
Clara did what most women her age would never do: she joined the circus.

Lena loved Clara. She liked the smart, tweedy skirt suits she wore and the smell
of the Amami shampoo she washed her hair with every Friday. She liked the way
she wrote her capital letters so neatly while completing the crossword puzzles
at breakfast on the weekends. She liked that Clara had a proper job, not a
circus job, and the way she sometimes paired men's trousers with bright red
lipstick, her brown hair falling in soft ringlets around her face. She liked
that she was young enough to chum around with Lena, often playing checkers and
Snap with her in the evenings, but old enough to be firm when required.

"Lena?"

Lena's smile vanished. She turned around to see that her father, Theo
Papadopoulos, had returned from his trip into town. Lena noticed how pink his
cheeks and nose were from the cool autumn air as he tugged off a pair of gray
gloves.

"Papa. You're back."

"I am indeed," he said, hanging up his coat and draping his scarf over the door
hook. "Clara, would you mind if I spoke with my daughter alone?"

Clara stood up. "Not at all, sir. I'll use the time to press my dress."

Theo smiled at the governess as she left, then took a seat in front of his
daughter. "So? How was your afternoon?"

"Fine. I've almost finished the book."

"Already? Goodness, I wouldn't be surprised if you were the fastest reader this
side of the ocean. Anything else happen?"

Lena bit her lip, wondering if she could get away with lying about the vase. But
her father knew everything. It seemed to be a special kind of magic power all
parents possessed, the ability to know about every little mistake their children
made without having to ask. "I didn't mean for the vase to fall!" She threw her
hands up in the air. "It was an accident!"

"But what were you doing outside Horace's study in the first place? Did I not
leave you with enough activities?" Theo gestured to the table by her bedside,
where a stack of books, coloring pages, and a compass set sat, untouched.

"I wanted to play with the other girls," Lena whispered, twisting her hands in
her lap. "I'm sorry I broke it. Was it a lot of money?"

Theo leaned forward, his eyes crinkling affectionately. "It's not the money. I
know you like being around those girls. But they are a few years older than you
and always getting into trouble."

"They're my friends."

"Would your real friends let you take the blame for something that wasn't your
fault?" Theo raised an eyebrow and Lena blushed. "Next time, please, listen to
me and stay here." He waved his arms around the bedroom.

Lena glanced sadly at the shelves around her, at the books and trinkets her
father had purchased. From a hand-painted dollhouse they'd found in Utrecht, to
a set of brilliant watercolors from Bern, to the latest Beatrix Potter books,
Lena had everything a child could have ever hoped for. So why did she feel so
empty?

But not wishing to start an argument with her father-especially ahead of the
dinner-she braced herself and smiled. "I promise."
 
 Theo beamed and retrieved a silver bag from behind him, tied with strands of
sparkly ribbon.

"Good. Now, every girl deserves something special before the inaugural dinner."

Lena perked up upon seeing the bag and grabbed at it, tugging off the ribbon and
removing the gift.

"Oh, Papa." It was a deep red velvet headband, laced with an intricate pattern
woven from thin golden thread, with three fake rubies shimmering at the center.
She placed it on her head and twisted back and forth, admiring herself in the
mirror. "It’s beautiful."

"You look just like a Russian tsarina," he said, bending down and planting a
kiss on her forehead. "Now. You must help me decide what to wear."

****

The grand dining hall was the most magnificent carriage at the World of Wonders.
Gargantuan chandeliers crafted from the finest Austrian crystal hung from the
ceilings, making it look like diamonds were raining down on the tables. Blue
paper flecked with gold leaf lined the walls and the doors that faced the inner
courtyard had been unlocked so that guests could go outside. From her table,
Lena watched, enthralled, as performers entered clad in traditional Russian
dress; the men in white rubhakas embroidered with red, blue, and green thread
and the women in colorful sarafans and glittering koloshniks perched atop their
heads. The tables had been rearranged in a rectangle around the perimeter of the
hall, leaving the center open for performances and speeches.

After the main courses had been served, it was tradition for Horace to give a
speech. Not one to break his traditional color scheme, he was dressed in a
midnight-blue tuxedo with tails and suede stripes, and he wore a matching suede
top hat. As he waddled to the podium, Lena heard snickering. She turned and saw
Suze trying to stifle a laugh two tables over. Laura caught Lena watching them
and gave her a sympathetic wave and smile. Lena smiled back sadly then refocused
her attention on Horace. Her father was right, she thought. As much as she hated
to admit it, she would never be like any of the children here. It was best to
not get involved with them.


ABOUT THE AUTHOR



AMITA PARIKH

Amita Parikh was born and raised in Toronto, Ontario and received an Honours BSc
from the University of Toronto. When she's not writing, she works in the tech
industry. The Circus Train is her first novel. More by Amita Parikh


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