I've enjoyed a couple of novels by Jostein Gaarder so was drawn to this one on the South Otterington Garden Party bookstall on Sunday afternoon. Being set in a circus, is a bonus!
Amazon Editorial Review: "Panina Manina, a trapeze artist, falls and breaks her neck. As the ringmaster bends over her, he sees around her neck an amber charm—just like the one he gave his own child before she was swept away in a torrent 16 years earlier. This tale is narrated by Petter, a precocious child and a fantasist, and perhaps Jostein Gaarder’s most intriguing creation since Sophie. Petter makes his living selling stories and ideas to authors suffering from writer’s block. It’s a lucrative trade, but as he sits like a spider in the center of his web, Petter finds himself in a trap of his own making."

The author has an interesting way with words: even in translation, they drew me in and quite forcefully washed all over and around me. I don't think I was as impressed with what they said as the way in which they said it - and I know I preferred the sections in italics, the stories and story-outlines. I have no words of my own to say what I thought of the narrator ....
And it isn't really set in a circus at all! That's a bit of a red herring!

Given to tree-hugger - will be interested to see what she journals when she's read it!

Thanks Nu-Knees. No circus? Boo!

Sorry for the delay - 6.5 years on Mount TBR, oops! This was a very good choice to pass on to me, thanks Nu-Knees. I loved all the smaller stories within the bigger story, and the fantastical elements, it was all right up my street. The protangonist was a unique character, and Gaardner did a great job of exploring what an excess of imagination could look like. I was surprised to find that it was easy to read and had so much plot, I'd been expecting something harder going - I might have got to it sooner if I'd known it was a weekender!

Dropping this off at Brigantes at lunchtime, during a meal with Nu-Knees & Mr Nu-Knees, so it'll be there for tonight's bookcrosser's meetup.

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