The Trapeze Artist
by Will Davis
Bloomsbury USA. 320 pages, $16.
A MAN who is never named—as if he’s invisible or not worthy of a name—is the protagonist of this somber, almost depressing novel by Will Davis, author of the award-winning novel, My Side of the Story (2007). This nameless man finds himself living in a house that is physically empty, having been emotionally empty for a very long time. While there’s some confusion in the timeline, it is eventually understood that this aloneness (and the subsequent scandal that he initiates) comes after he sees a circus act and falls head over heels for its aerialist. At that point he impulsively follows the circus.
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Terri Schlichenmeyer is a freelance writer based in Wisconsin.