THE CIRCUS TRAIN

The ambitious daughter of a famous illusionist grows up aboard a circus traveling through Europe—till the arrival of World War II throws her world into chaos.

Even within the traveling circus she’s always called home, Lena Papadopoulos has always felt different. Dependent on a wheelchair after a harrowing infant case of polio that also left her motherless, Lena has never been accepted by the other circus children; instead of playing with them, she spends her time reading and attending museum exhibits with her doting, overbearing father, Theo. Only within her studies does Lena feel truly at home—a brilliant student, she’s especially drawn to medicine and science, which is, she thinks, “where the real magic lay.” She passes her days poring over complicated anatomical diagrams and playing in the circus train’s hiding places—till the arrival of a runaway named Alexandre, whose unconscious body Lena stumbles across one day. Like Lena, Alexandre is an outsider—a Jew and an orphan—and, as he recovers from an illness aboard the train, he and Lena become fast friends over marathon games of gin rummy and shared snacks. Meanwhile, Theo takes wily Alexandre under his wing as an apprentice illusionist. But just as Lena’s life begins looking up, the circus’s crowds thin with Europe teetering on the precipice of war. And soon after Alexandre’s identifying papers go missing from the circus master’s office, SS officers capture Alexandre and Theo, whose parting words to his daughter—"I will find you. I promise”—echo in Lena’s ears for years to come. While Lena struggles to accept her father’s and Alexandre’s presumed deaths (unbeknownst to her, the two have been contracted to work as entertainers in a “model town” for Jews), all three fight to survive. Immersive and intricately plotted, this novel brings to life the precarious, colorful world of circus performance in prewar Europe, where nothing is as it seems, danger lurks around every corner, and success is a matter of confidence, luck, and risk. Lena, Alexandre, and Theo are lovable characters, each backed by three-dimensional backstories that expand and intersect satisfyingly as the novel progresses. Though the romantic thread is underdeveloped, 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.