A Son of the Circus

A Hindi film star, an American missionary, a pair of twins separated at birth, a diminutive chauffeur, and a serial killer collide in a riotous novel by the author of The World According to Garp

'His most entertaining novel since Garp.'—The New York Times Book Review

'A Son of the Circus is comic genius . . . get ready for [John] Irving's most raucous novel to date.'—The Boston Globe

'Dr. Farrokh Daruwalla, reared in Bombay by maverick foes of tradition, educated in Vienna, married to an Austrian and long a resident of Toronto, is a 59-year-old without a country, culture, or religion to call his own. . . . The novel may not be 'about' India, but Irving's imagined India, which Daruwalla visits periodically, is a remarkable achievement—a pandemonium of servants and clubmen, dwarf clowns and transvestite whores, missionaries and movie stars. This is a land of energetic colliding egos, of modern media clashing with ancient cultures, of broken sexual boundaries.'—New York Newsday

'His most daring and most vibrant novel . . . The story of circus-as-India is told with gusto and delightful irreverence.'—Bharati Mukherjee, The Washington Post Book World

'Ringmaster Irving introduces act after act, until three (or more) rings are awhirl at a lunatic pace. . . . [He] spills characters from his imagination as agilely as improbable numbers of clowns pile out of a tiny car. . . . His Bombay and his Indian characters are vibrant and convincing.'—The Wall Street Journal

'Irresistible . . . powerful . . . Irving's gift for dialogue shines.'—Chicago Tribune