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A Son of the Circus

Published
Aug 1994
Main Genre
Fantasy Fantasy
Rating
Pages
704

About This Book

A Hindi film star, an American missionary, a pair of twins separated at birth, a diminutive chauffeur, and a serial killer collide in a riotous novel by the author of The World According to Garp

"His most entertaining novel since Garp."The New York Times Book Review

"A Son of the Circus is comic genius . . . get ready for [John] Irving's most raucous novel to date."The Boston Globe

"Dr. Farrokh Daruwalla, reared in Bombay by maverick foes of tradition, educated in Vienna, married to an Austrian and long a resident of Toronto, is a 59-year-old without a country, culture, or religion to call his own. . . . The novel may not be 'about' India, but Irving's imagined India, which Daruwalla visits periodically, is a remarkable achievement—a pandemonium of servants and clubmen, dwarf clowns and transvestite whores, missionaries and movie stars. This is a land of energetic colliding egos, of modern media clashing with ancient cultures, of broken sexual boundaries."New York Newsday

"His most daring and most vibrant novel . . . The story of circus-as-India is told with gusto and delightful irreverence."—Bharati Mukherjee, The Washington Post Book World

"Ringmaster Irving introduces act after act, until three (or more) rings are awhirl at a lunatic pace. . . . [He] spills characters from his imagination as agilely as improbable numbers of clowns pile out of a tiny car. . . . His Bombay and his Indian characters are vibrant and convincing."The Wall Street Journal

"Irresistible . . . powerful . . . Irving's gift for dialogue shines."Chicago Tribune

BONUS: This edition contains an excerpt from John Irving's In One Person.

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Paperback

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Mass Market Paperback
Jul 1995 Ballantine ISBN 0345394755
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Sep 1995 Transworld (UK) ISBN 055299605X
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Mass Market Paperback
Sep 1995 Ballantine ISBN 0345389964
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Jun 1997 Ballantine ISBN 0345417992
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Hardcover

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First Edition Sep 1994 -- Not Selected ISBN 0747517630
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Aug 1994 Random House ISBN 0679434968
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Apr 1999 Ballantine ISBN 0345915615
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eBook

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Sep 2009 Vintage Canada ISBN 0307362000
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Sep 2009 Ballantine ISBN B002PYFVZ8
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Sep 2009 Random House ISBN 030742393X
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May 2012 Transworld (UK) ISBN 1448111846
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Audio

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Audio Cassette
Sep 1994 Brilliance Audio ISBN 1561005754
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Sep 1994 Brilliance Audio ISBN 1561002011
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Jun 2007 Brilliance Audio ISBN 1423335996
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Jun 2007 Brilliance Audio ISBN 1423336003
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Jun 2008 Brilliance Audio ISBN B001BQ7PTQ
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Aug 2015 Brilliance Audio ISBN 1501279939
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