Scribe is pleased to announce the acquisition of Vladivostok Circus by Elisa Shua Dusapin, translated by Aneesa Abbas Higgins.
17 August, 2023
Scribe acquires new novel by Elisa Shua Dusapin
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.
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$27.99 AUD
Vladivostok Circus
Tonight is the opening night. There are birds perched everywhere, on the power lines, the guy ropes, the strings of light that festoon the tent … when I think of all those little bodies suspended between earth and sky, it makes me smile to remind myself that for some of them, their first flight begins with a fall.
Nathalie arrives at the circus in Vladivostok, Russia, fresh out of fashion school in Geneva. She is there to design the costumes for a trio of artists who are due to perform one of the most dangerous acts of all: the Russian Bar.
As winter approaches, the season at Vladivostok is winding down, leaving the windy port city empty as the performers rush off to catch trains, boats, and buses home; all except the Russian bar trio and their manager. They are scheduled to perform at a festival in Ulan Ude, just before Christmas.
What ensues is an intimate and beguiling account of four people learning to work with and trust one another. This is a book about the delicate balance that must be achieved when flirting with death in such spectacular fashion, set against the backdrop of a cloudy ocean and immersing the reader in Dusapin’s trademark dreamlike prose.
