We publish books that matter — narrative and literary nonfiction on important topics, and the best of local, international, and translated fiction.

Scribe is pleased to announce the acquisition of Vladivostok Circus by Elisa Shua Dusapin, translated by Aneesa Abbas Higgins. 

Dusapin is also the author of Winter in Sokcho and The Pachinko Parlour, and this new novel marks the third collaboration for this author and translator pairing. 'This exquisitely written story follows a young woman, Nathalie, who's arrived in Vladivostok to design the costumes for a trio of circus artists working with the Russian bar. With her usual precision and economy, Dusapin shows how important the relationships between these artists are, and the setting is beautifully evoked,’ said publisher Marika Webb-Pullman of the novel.

‘Vladivostok Circus was born from a trip I made in 2018 between the Swiss Jura and Tokyo, via South Korea,’ said the author. ‘The idea: to go to my mother country, Korea, without taking a plane. As a Franco-Korean, I needed to see the faces of people evolve on the scale of a continent, to see their features gradually become Asian. I wrote this novel about a trio who try to go higher and higher in the face of gravity. I wrote it on the Trans-Siberian train. I never could have imagined that one day this trip would take my words even further: to other languages, to Australia. It is a great honour to be read by you.’ 

Vladivostok Circus will be published in April 2024.