A Journey between Night and Day

Valentin's circus has seen better days. The lions are toothless now, the elephants have disappeared altogether since that big fire in Budapest, and the acrobats are old and world-weary. And Valentin Samani himself, circus director and magician, who has performed for four kings and dined with seven presidents, feels that his strength is failing. The end of the Circus Schamani seems inevitable. But then a letter arrives and everything is turned upside down...

A decrepit circus creaks its way from Germany to the Middle East, an old man takes a journey into the past, and we, the readers, become witnesses to a fantastic rejuvenation. We see Valentin falling in love with the postwoman. We see him wrestling with a project he has so often postponed, embarking the novel he always intended to write. We see two old men becoming children again and recognizing what they have lost on their voyage into adulthood. And we listen - how could it be otherwise with a writer like Rafik Schami - to stories within stories, populated by a kaleidoscope of colourful characters. There are tales of Gibran, the only Arabian singer ever to have a career in Brazil (or so they say in Ulania); tales of Pipo the Clown whose brow furrows only on his deathbed because in life he did not bear to make anyone unhappy; tales of the man who makes a decent living selling places in queues... This is a great novel about a "big" issue: hope in the face of mortality.