Circus of Mirrors

Reviews

Praise for Julie Owen Moylan Touching, entertaining, hopeful. A vivid sense of time, place, people's attitudes and fragilities I so enjoyed That Green Eyed Girl. The atmosphere of city heat and dust and stifling apartments was so vividly evoked. And I was equally invested in both narrative strands . . . I was hooked from the beginning It's beautifully written and particularly wonderful on forbidden love, loss and forgiveness Gripping . . . Julie Owen Moylan vividly recreates drab, grey postwar London and her characters are convincing to the end What a brilliant tale of two sisters in Berlin. Atmospheric and the characters and flawed, complex and believable. Julie's best novel yet The sisters are terrific, unsentimentally and vividly portrayed. So, too, is Berlin, filled with menace, glitter and upcoming destruction. Bold and brave and absorbing Immersive, tender, simmering with secrets - and such a richly-drawn portrait of Berlin from 1926 to 1961 What a brilliantly evocative, moving and emotionally affecting read. Leni and Nette's struggles and the twists and turns of their relationship were so well realised and had me absolutely gripped. The Babylon Circus shimmered off the page, I could picture it completely. I raced through the final pages late at night desperate to know what would happen! A tale of two sisters and a city, all three of them so vividly drawn, I felt I knew them. An almost unbearably poignant story of missed chances, long-hidden lies and women fighting the odds to grab happiness where they can. Superbly atmospheric, with convincingly flawed characters that just leap off the page A dazzling ride through mid century Berlin, this is a story of both a place and the personal, as two sisters try to find their happiness as the world around them falls apart. Julie does mid century so well and her third book is no exception Sexy, electrically stylish, and beautiful - a gorgeous story about sisterhood, and a glamorous, evocative passport to a period we all long to get lost in. Julie's such an incredible writer A sweeping saga of sisterhood, missed chances and a glittering circus sparkles fiercely against mid-20th century Berlin. Gorgeous and poignant. A captivating tale of two sisters that at turns dazzles and devastates What a glittering and enticing world you've created- a book not to be read but swallowed whole Set against the backdrop of the exotic nightclub of the title, The Circus of Mirrors is the story of two sisters, Leni and Annette, and their struggles to survive in a Berlin torn apart by first war, then communism. Moylan has researched her period thoroughly, and her characters are well drawn, drawing the reader on to a heart-breaking conclusion The story of the sisters' tragic lives brims with atmosphere Atmospheric A glittering, heartfelt novel With hints of Atonement, this is an epic novel, spanning decades as it explores with compassion and humanity the relationship of two sisters torn between the love and obligation they feel towards one another, and their desire for freedom and a better life that will split them apart. It’s about secrets and hidden truths and the deep and long-lasting consequences of both. Above all it’s a story of missed opportunity, chance, guilt, love and forgiveness. I devoured this novel with its rich, vivid prose and its complex characters, tossed into conflict and dire circumstances through no fault of their own. A deeply thought-provoking and emotional story I will be thinking of long after I finished the final page. Utterly luminous An all-singing, all-dancing, moving and masterful book about two complex sisters living in incredibly complex times. Mid-twentieth century Berlin and the glittering world of the Babylon Circus are brilliantly evoked and, as always with Julie Owen Moylan's writing, the characters - astutely rendered, flawed and convincing - live with us long after we've closed the book. Brilliant Expand reviews