The Night Circus

About the Book: The Night Circus

The circus arrives without warning. No announcements precede it. It is simply there, when yesterday it was not. Within the black-and-white striped canvas tents is an utterly unique experience full of breathtaking amazements. It is called Le Cirque des Reves, and it is only open at night.

But behind the scenes, a fierce competition is underway-a duel between two young magicians, Celia and Marco, who have been trained since childhood expressly for this purpose by their mercurial instructors. Unbeknownst to them, this is a game in which only one can be left standing, and the circus is but the stage for a remarkable battle of imagination and will. Despite themselves, however, Celia and Marco tumble headfirst into love-a deep, magical love that makes the lights flicker and the room grow warm whenever they so much as brush hands.

True love or not, the game must play out, and the fates of everyone involved, from the cast of extraordinary circus per­formers to the patrons, hang in the balance, suspended as precariously as the daring acrobats overhead.

Written in rich, seductive prose, this spell-casting novel is a feast for the senses and the heart.

About the Author: Erin Morgenstern

Erin Morgenstern is a writer and multimedia artist who describes all her work as being "fairy tales in one way or another." She lives in Massachusetts with her husband.

Reviews

'Even if you're not ready for clown shoes, you'll enjoy escaping into Erin Morgenstern's enchanting first novel … Morgenstern has spun an extravaganza that makes P.T. Barnum look smaller than Tom Thumb. Echoing the immense pleasure of Susanna Clarke's "Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell," "The Night Circus" presents a sprightly version of 19th-century English magic … the spectacle that opens in a field outside of London in 1886 is a collection of nested marvels so irresistible and lovely that it's hard to drop back into our comparatively drab little world.'-Ron Charles, The Washington Post

'Morgenstern's book is so sparklingly alive, you swear the pages are breathing in your hands … A Romeo and Juliet tale drenched in magic realism, "The Night Circus'' defies both genres and expectations. In short, it's a showstopper.'-The Boston Globe

"[A] dark and extravagantly imagined debut…The plot follows the separate and then intertwining lives of Celia and Marco, both forced to spend their lives pitting their unusual talents against each other in a cruel competition. But their world is Morgenstern's most vivid creation, a fantastical circus featuring illusionists whose powers transcend mere sleight of hand; like those performers, the author entices her audience to suspend disbelief and rewards its members with captivating pleasure."-People magazine

'Morgenstern's exquisitely realized world will have the reader wishing to run off and join this circus.'-USA Today

'So should you read Erin Morgenstern's debut novel, "The Night Circus?" The short answer: "Yes." The book is engaging and magical, entrancing the reader every step of the way.'-The Huffington Post

"The Night Circus made me happy. Playful and intensely imaginative, Erin Morgenstern has created the circus I have always longed for and she has populated it with dueling love-struck magicians, precocious kittens, hyper-elegant displays of beauty and complicated clocks. This is a marvelous book."-Audrey Niffenegger, author of The Time Traveler's Wife

"Erin Morgenstern's debut novel, The Night Circus, is quietly, enchantingly perfect…reading this novel is like having a marvelous dream, in which you are asleep enough to believe everything that is happening, but awake enough to relish the experience and understand that it is magical."-Newsday

"Morgenstern's Circus is the stuff that dreams are made of, and nothing short of a wild ride."-Elle magazine

"Magical. Enchanting. Spellbinding. Mesmerizing."-Associated Press

"[A] few pages into this story of a mysterious circus and its two stars, a young man and a woman who are both capable of real magic, and you know you are in the presence of an extraordinary storyteller."-The Daily Beast

"Morgenstern's novel feels crafted from the fabric of a dream, and the circus itself never fails to astound. For me, the only real disappointment was that I couldn't buy a ticket."-The Christian Science Monitor

"[T]he world of The Night Circus is elaborately designed, fantastically imagined and instantly intoxicating-as if the reader had downed a glass of absinthe and leapt into a hallucination."-Rachel Syme for NPR.org