Zirkuskind

Irving at his best:the novel weaves the life stories of a lot of ludicrous characters together. So many ideas. Other writers base an entire book on just one idea. Of course, it can be overwhelming, so many characters are introduced at the beginning and you do not know why. But Irving keeps all those loose ends for you and at some stage there is a reason why they are there lingering around until they are tied into knotted into the story.
There is an Indian doctor living in Canada – studied in Austria – and interested in dwarfs, Therefore he spends a lot of time in circuses. Twins – separated at birth – seemingly the opposite of each other – and finally equal. A serial killer, which is uncovered very early in the story but you are anxious how many and whom he will kill before he get caught. A Bollywood movie star, who is actually not Indian – but in India he speaks the typical accent. He makes a lot of money by being the most hated and threatened movie star in India. BTW: the serial killer is after him. In Europe he is an actor at the “Schauspielhaus” in Zürich – one of the file most prestigious theaters in the German spoken world. And so on and on … actually it is all about the life between cultures. People who do not belong to anywhere.