The Night Circus

ebook, 388 pages
Hardcover, 391 pages
Published: 2011
Locus Award for Best First Novel (2012)
Mythopoeic Fantasy Award Finalist (2012)
The circus arrives without warning. No announcements precede it. It is simply there, when yesterday it was not. Within the black-and-white striped canvas tents is an utterly unique experience full of breathtaking amazements. It is called Le Cirque des Rêves, and it is only open at night.
But behind the scenes, a fierce competition is underway—a duel between two young magicians, Celia and Marco, who have been trained since childhood expressly for this purpose by their mercurial instructors. Unbeknownst to them, this is a game in which only one can be left standing, and the circus is but the stage for a remarkable battle of imagination and will. Despite themselves, however, Celia and Marco tumble headfirst into love—a deep, magical love that makes the lights flicker and the room grow warm whenever they so much as brush hands.
True love or not, the game must play out, and the fates of everyone involved, from the cast of extraordinary circus performers to the patrons, hang in the balance, suspended as precariously as the daring acrobats overhead.
Written in rich, seductive prose, this spell-casting novel is a feast for the senses and the heart. (
Praise for THE NIGHT CIRCUS:
“The Night Circus made me happy. Playful and intensely imaginative, Erin Morgenstern has created the circus I have always longed for and she has populated it with dueling love-struck magicians, precocious kittens, hyper-elegant displays of beauty and complicated clocks. This is a marvelous book.”
“Debut author Morgenstern doesn't miss a beat in this smashing tale of greed, fate, and love…a giant, magical story destined for bestsellerdom. This is an electric debut on par with Special Topics in Calamity Physics.”
«Self-assured, entertaining debut that blends genres and crosses continents in quest of magic… Generous in its vision and fun to read. Likely to be a big book—and, soon, a big movie, with all the franchise trimmings.”
“This big and compelling first novel ushers in a menacing tone with its first sentence: “The circus arrives without warning.”…With appeal for readers not particularly geared to fantasy but who plainly enjoy an unusual and well-drawn story, this one will make a good crossover suggestion.”
Goodreads Choice Award Nominee for Best Fantasy and for Favorite Book (2011), Orange Prize Nominee for Fiction Longlist (2012), Guardian First Book Award Nominee for Longlist (2011), Mythopoeic Fantasy Award Nominee for Adult Literature (2012), Lincoln Award Nominee (2014), The Kitschies Nominee for Golden Tentacle (Debut) (2011)