Synopses & Reviews
Synopsis
A real-life vanishing act leaves one man looking for his missing friend in this clever, Kavkaesque novel of psychological suspense from the acclaimed author of The Room and The Invoice The narrator of The Circus is perfectly content with his quiet life. He works at a bakery counter, and in his free time organizes (and reorganizes) his record collection. He's not up to much the day his old school friend Magnus invites him to a circus, and he's certainly not expecting the simple outing to change everything in his life. Because while participating in a magic trick Magnus vanishes--completely.
Struggling to piece together the events that led to his friend's inexplicable disappearance, the narrator comes to realize that even the most basic facts about his life are suddenly uncertain. His friend Jallo claims to have never met Magnus, even though they went to school together. Magnus's apartment seems deserted, but is the narrator at the right address? And who is the mysterious person who keeps calling him on the phone but never saying a word?
Sharply unsettling and clever, this subtle interpretation of a suspense novel is classic Jonas Karlsson.
Synopsis
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. 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?
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.
Synopsis
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.
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?
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.