This book is a wonder. It is as dazzling and full of surprises and magic as the circus it depicts - and this is saying something, as the circus and its various attractions (far too pale a word) is almost another character in its own right such is the loving care with which its sights and experiences are detailed. Yet it is shot all through with strains of pain, joy, longing, hurt, love and loneliness that keep this altogether phantasmagorical tale of a contest without conflict whose true nature is kept hidden painfully long from its participants still very firmly grounded in the reality of our own human condition, with all its frailties and fallibilities. I admit I shied away - too long, to my regret - from reading this book at first because the description offered seemed to highlight the romantic elements of the story - not precisely my usual cup of tea. Take it as a testament, then, that I found the love interwoven through this story as integral and compelling as anything else. Or should it be loves? It is, after all, not truly only one that twists through the narrative, touching and shaping what transpires for the better and the worse both. And in the end, as disaster and tragedy mount around the ravelling edges and fracturing heart of the circus, its enspelled (and enspelling) participants, and those caught on its sidelines or drawn into its enchanting yet dangerous orbit, by their defiance of expectations and imposed or presumed restrictions yield by the barest of margins a bittersweet victory that is genuinely moving and as close to perfect as could reasonably be managed - and far closer than could reasonably be expected. This is a gem of fiction - precious and to be treasured.