BERLIN, 1926
After the death of their parents, sisters Leni and Annette only have each other.
Desperate to support her younger sister, Leni finds work at a notorious cabaret: the Babylon Circus, a place where reality and fantasy merge.
It’s an overwhelming new world, and Leni is happiest hiding in the shadows.
That is, until she meets the cabaret’s resident pianist, Paul, beginning a tentative love affair that will play out over the next forty years and will change the course of their lives forever.
In a city whose divisions will define a century, can a love born within the feverish walls of the Babylon Circus ever survive?
And can the bond between Leni and Annette – tugged in opposite directions of their own – also endure?
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Circus of Mirrors by Julie Owen Moylan was published in hardback on 12 September 2024 by Michael Joseph. My thanks to the publisher who sent my copy for review.
It is very fair to say that Julie Owen Moylan is now one of my favourite authors. I devoured her first two books (That Green Eyed Girl - May 2022), and 73 Dove Street - July 2023. I was so excited when I heard that Circus of Mirrors would be set in both pre and post War Berlin. Historical fiction is never my first choice of reading, but I do love stories set in the more recent past. I read this during my final few days in Cyprus a few weeks ago and was totally and utterly transfixed throughout.
This author draws extraordinary female characters and in Leni and Annette we have two of the best. We follow them as they struggle with life on the streets in devastated Berlin. Where food is scarce, the streets are mean and danger lurks around every corner. Annette is just a small girl, and her older sister Leni is totally and utterly responsible for her. She wants nothing more than to get them off the streets, to safety and this is how she is introduced to the Babylon Circus. Not a circus in the usual way, but a cabaret club, held in the Whalebone Theatre, where scantily-clad women dance for rich men. Annette is not a dancer, but gets a job as a cigarette girl, working each night, whilst Leni shelters in their hiding place in an old yard.
It is very fair to say that Julie Owen Moylan is now one of my favourite authors. I devoured her first two books (That Green Eyed Girl - May 2022), and 73 Dove Street - July 2023. I was so excited when I heard that Circus of Mirrors would be set in both pre and post War Berlin. Historical fiction is never my first choice of reading, but I do love stories set in the more recent past. I read this during my final few days in Cyprus a few weeks ago and was totally and utterly transfixed throughout.
This author draws extraordinary female characters and in Leni and Annette we have two of the best. We follow them as they struggle with life on the streets in devastated Berlin. Where food is scarce, the streets are mean and danger lurks around every corner. Annette is just a small girl, and her older sister Leni is totally and utterly responsible for her. She wants nothing more than to get them off the streets, to safety and this is how she is introduced to the Babylon Circus. Not a circus in the usual way, but a cabaret club, held in the Whalebone Theatre, where scantily-clad women dance for rich men. Annette is not a dancer, but gets a job as a cigarette girl, working each night, whilst Leni shelters in their hiding place in an old yard.
The author takes her readers through four decades, following the lead characters as they love, as they lose, as they cry and as they celebrate. At the heart of the story is a wonderfully depicted romance, but this is not all hearts and roses by any means, there are sadnesses to shred the hardest of hearts along the way.
Not only are the characters wonderfully woven, they are also incredibly flawed at times. It is not easy to empathise with Annette at times, despite learning so much about her experiences. Yet Leni is a true heroine, a character to shout for, to back all of the way, to hope for and to cry for.
Not only are the characters wonderfully woven, they are also incredibly flawed at times. It is not easy to empathise with Annette at times, despite learning so much about her experiences. Yet Leni is a true heroine, a character to shout for, to back all of the way, to hope for and to cry for.
Absolutely stunning historical fiction, with a sense of place that is intricately and sensitively created. Characters who are realistic, and a plot line that captures the reader from page one. Highly recommended.
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Her debut novel That Green Eyed Girl was a Waterstones’ Welsh Book of the Month and the official runner up for the prestigious Paul Torday Memorial Prize. It was also shortlisted for Best Debut at the Fingerprint Awards and featured at the Hay Festival as one of its ‘Ten at Ten’.
73 Dove Street was a Waterstones’ Books of 2023 and a Daily Mail Historical Fiction Book of the Year.
As a filmmaker Julie won the Celtic Media Award for her graduation film “BabyCakes” before going on to win Best Short Film at the Swansea Film Festival.
Her writing and short stories have appeared in a variety of publications including Sunday Express, The Independent, New Welsh Review and Good Housekeeping.
She has a Masters in Filmmaking and an additional qualification in Creative Writing & English Literature.
Julie is an alumna of the Faber Academy. Circus of Mirrors will be published in Sept 2024.
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