English language
Published Nov. 7, 2011 by Allen & Unwin.
Set in a travelling circus touring the backblocks of America during the Great Depression of the early 1930s this is a story of love and hate, trains and circuses, dwarves and fat ladies, horses and elephants - or to be more specific, one elephant, Rosie, star of Benzini Bros Most Spectacular Show on Earth ...
Pretty good. Another popular novel that comes with historical insights. Hard to rate... 3.5 - 3.75 stars?
Unsettled by his parents' deaths, and right before finishing his final exams to become a vet, Jacob Jankowski jumps on a circus train. Jacob ends up as the vet for the Benzini Brothers Most Spectacular Show on Earth. There he meets very peculiar characters and makes a lot of weird friends and powerful enemies.
At first I thought it was interesting to know the end before reading the whole story as it would leave me less anxious for the characters, but it turns out it worked against the book because I lost all interest in the story of the young Jacob Jankowski. The older version was the one that kept me reading/listening to the book. I liked it, his monologues felt very real, but I did not think the book was that interesting. The end is pretty good though.
