One of Us
A Novel
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- $21.99
Publisher Description
"A captivating new novel... As One of Us gleefully samples multiple registers — comic, tragic, satiric, elegiac, poetic — its mesh of archaic and contemporary styles becomes something quite arresting, a joy to read."
—Hamilton Cain, The New York Times
A playfully macabre and utterly thrilling tale about orphaned twins on the run from their murderous uncle who find refuge in a bizarre traveling carnival, from master of literary horror Dan Chaon
It’s 1915 and the world is transforming, but for thirteen-year-old Bolt and Eleanor—twins so close they can literally read each other’s minds—life is falling apart. When their mother dies, they are forced to leave home under the care of a vicious con man who claims to be their long-lost uncle Charlie, the only kin they have left. During a late-night poker game, when one of his rages ends in murder, they decide to flee.
Salvation arrives in the form of Mr. Jengling, founder of the Emporium of Wonders and father to its many members. He adopts Bolt and Eleanor, who travel by train across the vast, sometimes brutal American frontier with their new family, watching as the exhibitions spark amazement wherever they go. There’s Minnie, the three-legged lady, and Dr. Chui, who stands over seven feet tall; Thistle Britches, the clown with no nose, and Rosalie, who can foretell the death of anyone she meets.
After a lifetime of having only each other, Eleanor and Bolt are finally part of something bigger. But as Bolt falls in deeper with their new clan, he finds Eleanor pulling further away from him. And when Uncle Charlie picks up their trail, the twins find themselves facing a peril as strange as it is terrifying, one which will forever alter the trajectory of their lives. An ode to the misfits and the marginalized, One of Us is a riotous and singularly creepy celebration of the strange and the spectacular and of family in its many forms.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Psychic twins join a carnival sideshow to escape a madman in Chaon's spectacular latest (after Sleepwalk). Born in 1901 Ohio, Eleanor and Bolt Lambkin can read each other's minds and, sometimes, the thoughts of others. Their father, Jasper, an itinerant mentalist whom they never knew, died by suicide, and after their mother dies in 1914, Bolt and Eleanor are taken in by a man who calls himself Uncle Charlie and claims to be their only living relative. Turns out Charlie is actually a murderous grifter and onetime friend of Jasper's, who hopes to make money from the twins' paranormal abilities. Bolt and Eleanor stupefy him with spiked beer, talk their way onto an orphan train, and are adopted in Iowa by traveling carnival operator Harland Jengling. Eleanor is standoffish with Jengling and his troupe but Bolt bonds with performers Elmer the Dog-Faced Boy, Gladness the half-ton woman, and even the eerie Rosalie, who has a partial second head and can predict people's deaths. Determined to punish—and profit from—the twins, Charlie follows their trail westward, setting the stage for a climactic encounter that tests their ability to protect each other. Chaon dazzles with his vision of family, strangeness, and the tension between care and exploitation. This captivating adventure is not to be missed.
