Betsy Tobin: The Bounce

[Wabbit]

The Bounce was a book by Betsy Tobin that I read last year. I find myself thinking about it from time to time. I really enjoyed it and it evoked such a delicious atmosphere!

Synopsis
THE BOUNCE is a masterpiece of lion-taming, cross-dressing, lost mothers and lost innocence, set in the glamorous and squalid world of the Victorian circus. Nineteen-year-old Nathan sails the Atlantic in search of the mother who abandoned him. He takes a job as a lion-tamer in a circus south of the Thames, where he meets Lulu, a celebrated rope-dancer with secrets; Nan, the orange-girl, haunted by her dead son and his menacing father; Queen, the lion on whom everything rests, and, at last, his mother - or is she his mother, after all? Like BONE HOUSE, THE BOUNCE is pacy, darkly Gothic and powerfully evocative, but its setting and the characters elevate it to a new level: literary historical fiction at its spine-tingling, compelling best.

Anybody read this one?

 

[cajunmama]

No, I haven't read it, but it is now on my list.

 

[Wabbit]

Ah good, it's a great book, and hope you like it

The lions in the book are just as much characters as the humans. The way she writes them with their thoughts and feelings came as a great surprise to me at first but I found it to be very compelling and interesting thing to do. I became really attached to the lions are real characters in the book.

 

[honeydevil]

Ah good, it's a great book, and hope you like it

The lions in the book are just as much characters as the humans. The way she writes them with their thoughts and feelings came as a great surprise to me at first but I found it to be very compelling and interesting thing to do. I became really attached to the lions are real characters in the book.

that sounds really good, I added it to my list a few seconds ago??
thanks

 

[Wabbit]

It is really good. It's one of those rare books that stayed with me even now. I hope you like it too