Church of Marvels

A Novel

De: Leslie Parry

Narrado por: Denice Stradling

A ravishing debut novel set in the vibrant, tumultuous world of turn-of-the-century New York, about four outsiders whose lives become entwined over the course of one fateful night

Sylvan, a night-soiler who cleans out privies behind tenement houses, pulls a terrible secret from the filthy hollows: an abandoned baby. An orphan himself, he resolves to find out where she belongs.

Odile is the target for a knife thrower in a show that has lost its magic. She and her sister Belle were raised in the curtained halls of their mother’s Coney Island sideshow, The Church of Marvels. Now the sideshow has burnt to the ground, their mother dead in the ashes, and Belle has run away.

Alphie wakes up groggy and confused in Blackwell’s Lunatic Asylum. She is sure that her imprisonment is a ruse by her vile mother-in-law, and will do anything to prove her own innocence. When a woman who is committed alongside her coughs up a pair of scissors from the depths of her agile throat, a plan is hatched to save them both.

On a single night, these strangers’ lives will become irrevocably entwined as secrets come to light and outsiders struggle for acceptance. From the Coney Island seashore to the tenement-studded streets of the Lower East Side—a spectacular sideshow to a desolate asylum—turn-of-the-century New York comes magically and vividly alive in Leslie Parry’s luminous debut.

HIghly Recommend!

This is very unique and unusual tale. Shifting points of view through a myriad of characters, Parry tells a story full of mystery and intrigue centred upon a circus family.

Odile and Belle are the twins daughters of the mother who started the Church of Marvels, a Coney Island sideshow. And they are both performers in her show. But when an accidental fire destroys the Church of Marvels, killing their mother, her beloved tigers, and the girls' childhood friends, Belle packs up and leaves while Odile is left to cope with the details.

After a mysterious letter arrives for Odile, she goes in search of her sister, unsure of what she will find. At the same time, Sylvan - a nightsoiler - finds a baby girl from a privvy he is cleaning out. The infant appears dead but revives after a few minutes. Unable to simply drop her at an orphanage, he sneaks her home and starts the search for her family, certain that no mother could abandon a baby like that.

What follows is a surprising action-packed adventure. The pacing in this book is perfect. And the characters are fully developed individuals with their own unique perspectives on what is happening in their lives. Parry doesn't shy away from difficult subjects and approaches them with a clear and authentic voice. The intertwining of narratives and the interconnectedness of the plotlines are brought together masterfully in the finale.

The only weakness in this novel is its dark tone. This is not a happily-ever-after, feel good novel. But that's what makes it so real.