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The spellbinding novel from Elizabeth Macneal, author of the
Sunday Times bestselling
The Doll Factory.
About the author
Elizabeth Macneal is the author of two Sunday Times-bestselling novels: The Doll Factory, which won the 2018 Caledonia Novel Award and has been adapted into a major TV series on Paramount+, and Circus of Wonders. Her work has been translated into twenty-nine languages. Born in Scotland, Elizabeth is also a potter and lives in Twickenham with her family.
Summary
The Sunday Times bestseller from the bestselling author of The Doll Factory, Elizabeth Macneal.
Set in a spectacular circus in the pleasure gardens of Victorian London, Circus of Wonders is an addictive novel about power, fame, and a love that is threatened by a terrible secret.
'Glitters and gleams . . . utterly beguiling' – Daily Mail
1866. In a coastal village in southern England, Nell lives set apart by her community because of the birthmarks that speckle her skin.
But when Jasper Jupiter’s Circus of Wonders arrives in the village, Nell is kidnapped. Her father has sold her, promising Jasper Jupiter his very own leopard girl. It is the greatest betrayal of Nell's life, but as her fame grows, and she finds friendship with the other performers and Jasper’s gentle brother Toby, she begins to wonder if joining the show is the best thing that has ever happened to her.
In London, newspapers describe Nell as the eighth wonder of the world. Figurines are cast in her image, and crowds rush to watch her soar through the air. But what happens when her fame eclipses Jasper's own? And as she falls in love with Toby, can he detach himself from his past and the terrible secret that binds him to his brother?
Foreword
The spellbinding novel from Elizabeth Macneal, author of the Sunday Times bestselling The Doll Factory.
Additional text
[Macneal's] great strength is in imagining vivid inner lives and narratives for people usually sidelined, who in the historical great-man theory merely provide delicacies and amusements for the rich
