Vladivostok Circus

Dusapin’s dreamy and insightful fish-out-of-water story (after The Pachinko Parlor) follows a Geneva fashion school graduate to the Vladivostok circus. Nathalie, who knows little about circuses and doesn’t speak Russian, has agreed to design costumes for the trio who performs an act known as the Russian bar. Upon arrival, she meets the circus manager, Leon, who serves as her translator and introduces her to the team’s leader, Anton, a famous older performer who is mentoring Nino on how to hold the flexible bar that the flier, Anna, will jump from and land on. The act is dangerous—Anna’s predecessor was badly injured five years earlier and hasn’t jumped since—and it relies on the team members trusting one another. It takes time for Nathalie to acclimate—she struggles with psoriasis, and must stay at a hotel separate from the performers, as the room she was promised isn’t available. Her first attempt at costuming doesn’t go well, but gradually she finds her artistic voice as the group begins to bond, and the action builds to an unforgettable climax in the circus ring. Dusapin’s scene-setting and examination of languages and cultures colliding are as precise as ever. Readers will be thrilled. (May)