About the Book
Locus Award for Best First Novel 2012. Mythopoeic Fantasy Award nominee 2012.
The circus arrives without warning. No announcements precede it. It is
simply there, when yesterday it was not. Within the black-and-white
striped canvas tents is an utterly unique experience full of
breathtaking amazements. It is called Le Cirque des Rêves, and it is only open at night.
But behind the scenes, a fierce competition is underway — a duel between
two young magicians, Celia and Marco, who have been trained since
childhood expressly for this purpose by their mercurial instructors.
Unbeknownst to them, this is a game in which only one can be left
standing, and the circus is but the stage for a remarkable battle of
imagination and will. Despite themselves, however, Celia and Marco
tumble headfirst into love — a deep, magical love that makes the lights
flicker and the room grow warm whenever they so much as brush hands.
True love or not, the game must play out, and the fates of everyone
involved, from the cast of extraordinary circus performers to the
patrons, hang in the balance, suspended as precariously as the daring
acrobats overhead.
Written in rich, seductive prose, this spell-casting novel is a feast for the senses and the heart.
“Erin Morgenstern has created the circus I have always longed for and she has populated it with dueling love-struck magicians, precocious kittens, hyper-elegant displays of beauty and complicated clocks. This is a marvelous book.” - Audrey Niffenegger, author of The Time Traveler’s Wife
“A riveting debut. The Night Circus pulls you into a world as dark as it is dazzling, fully-realized but still something out of a dream. You will not want to leave it.” - Téa Obreht, author of The Tiger’s Wife
