Thank you to Gallery Books for the advanced copy of this novel. Home of the American Circus will hit store shelves on May 6th.

Allison Larkin shared with me that Home of the American Circus is the book she is most proud of, and it's easy to see why. Her heart is on every page of this 432-page family drama, vividly capturing the author's hometown of Somers, New York- a place rich in history as the birthplace of the American circus. This town's status symbol becomes the author's cornerstone for a story filled with reinvention and, perhaps, a bit of reinterpretation that echoes her character's transformative journeys.

After a financial emergency, Freya reluctantly returns to the crumbling house she inherited from her estranged parents. What begins as a hesitant homecoming transforms into an emotional excavation of her past as she confronts the ghosts of broken friendships, familial betrayals, and unresolved love. But it is her discovery of Aubrey, her fifteen-year-old niece secretly living in the neglected family home, who brings Freya's journey into sharp focus as she tries to make up for what she missed when she was gone.

Larkin takes her time unraveling the mystery behind Freya's departure, offering heartwrenching snapshots of emotional abuse and neglect from her childhood. These past emotional blows are met with respite as the present timeline becomes filled with vibrant side characters, a cozy restaurant setting where unlikely people and food pairings find each other, romances blossom, and a found family emerges for Freya that the reader can delight in.

Sometimes, the home is its own character in our stories, and in this novel, it offers readers a powerful symbol—weathered, damaged, and yet capable of being rebuilt—just like us, even when we feel beyond the grasp of repair.

Fans of character-driven novels will have much to love in this ambitious novel, and I can't wait to host Allison on the Book Gang podcast to learn more about the writing process for this beautiful book.