Follows the Ponce family's circus in Mexico as it struggles with mounting debt, dwindling audiences, and a simmering family conflict.

Welcome to the sublime circus of Mark Mayer's Michener-Copernicus-winning debut, Aerialists, a fiercely inventive collection of nine stories in which classic carnival characters become ordinary misfits seeking grandeur in a lonely world. Under the luminous tent of Mayer's prose, we see P.T. Barnum's caravan remade: A young misogynist finds a confidante in a cable-TV strongwoman. A realtor for the one percent invokes his inner murder clown. A skin-and-bones...

Dumbo the circus elephant is unhappy about his large ears, until he discovers that he can use them to fly.

Grumps is content to do his one trick in the center ring at the circus, until a new dog shows up and steals the show--temporarily.

A mouth-watering mix of performers juggle, soar, and cavort their way through the alphabet. Each letter is accompanied by a zippy alliterative phrase ("basil balancing ballerinas," "fettucine fire-eaters") and a whimsical illustration that incorporates a photo of a different type of pasta-related food. The artist makes inspired use of her edible medium: pieces of bell-like campanelle transform into clown hats; twisting strands of gemelli comprise...

Oliver the elephant looks elsewhere for employment after learning that the circus already has enough elephants.

A novel of star-crossed lovers, set in the circus world circa 1932. When Jacob Jankowski, recently orphaned and suddenly adrift, jumps onto a passing train, he enters a world of freaks, grifters, and misfits, a second-rate circus struggling to survive during the Great Depression, making one-night stands in town after endless town. A veterinary student who almost earned his degree, Jacob is put in charge of caring for the circus menagerie. It is there...