Vladivostok Circus
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- ¥1,300
発行者による作品情報
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 into Dusapin’s trademark dreamlike prose.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Dusapin's dreamy and insightful fish-out-of-water story (after The Pachinko Parlor) follows a Geneva fashion school graduate to the Vladivostok circus. Nathalie, who knows little about circuses and doesn't speak Russian, has agreed to design costumes for the trio who performs an act known as the Russian bar. Upon arrival, she meets the circus manager, Leon, who serves as her translator and introduces her to the team's leader, Anton, a famous older performer who is mentoring Nino on how to hold the flexible bar that the flier, Anna, will jump from and land on. The act is dangerous—Anna's predecessor was badly injured five years earlier and hasn't jumped since—and it relies on the team members trusting one another. It takes time for Nathalie to acclimate—she struggles with psoriasis, and must stay at a hotel separate from the performers, as the room she was promised isn't available. Her first attempt at costuming doesn't go well, but gradually she finds her artistic voice as the group begins to bond, and the action builds to an unforgettable climax in the circus ring. Dusapin's scene-setting and examination of languages and cultures colliding are as precise as ever. Readers will be thrilled.
