Lilliet Berne is a famous opera singer in 1882 Paris when an author approaches her to ask her to star in an opera he has just finished writing. When she reads it, she realizes that the story relates her own secret past. As she tries to discover the person who betrayed her confidence, she remembers her humble beginnings as an orphan from Ohio, her travels in Europe with a circus and her…
Tag: circus
Event
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John Irving in Ottawa
Yesterday, John Irving was in the city for the Ottawa International Writers Festival‘s last event of the season. It didn’t start on a good note though: when I arrived, I was told that the author would not be signing books and that the audience would need to submit their questions in advance for approval. The public could buy a limited number of signed books at the entrance, but there was…
Emma Donoghue
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Frog Music by Emma Donoghue
It is the end of summer 1876, and San Francisco has been struck by a heat wave and a smallpox epidemic. Jenny Bonnet, a frog-hunting woman dressed in men’s clothes, is riding her bicycle when she collides with Blanche Beunon, a burlesque dancer and prostitute. This is the start of an unexpected friendship that will end a month later when Jenny is shot dead in a saloon at San Miguel Station. Blanche is…