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Bloomsbury Publishing
February 2019
On Sale: February 19, 2019
304 pages
ISBN: 1635572177
EAN: 9781635572179
Kindle: B07HHHBQZS
Hardcover / e-Book
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Fiction Family Life
Welcome to the surreal and sublime human circus of Mark Mayerβs Michener-Copernicusβwinning debut, Aerialists, a fiercely inventive collection of nine stories in which classic carnival characters become ordinary misfits seeking grandeur in a lonely world. Under the luminous tent of Mayerβs prose, we meet an unforgettable caravan: a heartsick boy finds a new mentor in a tough-talking female bodybuilder. A navy recruit grapples with the impending loss of his childhood by building an exact replica of his neighborhood in code. With the help of a flatulent dog, a boy tries to reunite his parents. A wilderness expert tries to seduce his love interest with the promise of showing her an elusive mountain lion. The circus has always been a collection of American exaggerationsβthe bold, the beautiful, the freakish, the big. Aerialists finds these myths in everyday contemporary life. Mayerβs deftly drawn characters illuminate small-scale spectaculars, and their attempted acts of daring and feats of strength are rendered with humor, generosity, and uncommon grace.
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