It is a novel by Manuel Jorge Marmelo
It's an easy read, accessible and the story would be seductive even if the author did not got lost in the narrative. In the early chapters we are led to believe that this is a kind of police novel, since it begins with an alleged crime, that endangers the life of trapeze artist Ricardo, the star of the company and Pavarotti, the singing donky, who appears ignoblely dead. As if by magic this potential narrative strand disappears, is relegated to the background, and the book ends up focusing on the daily life of a dying circus through the eyes of a teenager, Julio, who dreams of one day having his own number mounted on a motorcycle into the pit of death. The artists that populate this potentially dramatic scenery are well delineated by the author, the young narrator, whets our curiosity, creates in the reader's will want to know more, the characters are growing in complexity over several chapters until the book ends abruptly, with a band aid solution, let us say, for both mysterious incidents and what could had been a very interesting and full of suspense reading until the last page instead leaves a certain bitter taste of disappointment. Happy reading!
