Sara Gruen evokes a traveling circus as convincingly as a sideshow talker chats up the wonders of the midway. This superb novel depicts Jacob Jankowski both as a young man in 1931—when, in an act of desperation brought on by tragic circumstances, he hops a circus train car—and in the present day, when he's an old man weak in body but strong in memories. Gruen's careful research into the history and lore of train circuses adds rich color to the story of Jacob and his love for Marlena, an equestrian star married to August, the circus's violent animal trainer.