Review: City of Circles by Jess Richards

Danu has suffered an immeasurable loss; the death of both parents, gone within hours of each other. Victims to a disease which felled many others in the circus to which her family belongs, her parents’ deaths make her an orphan.

Danu’s grief is deep and wide, an ocean threatening to drown her at any moment, without hesitation. In an attempt to try distract herself and live, she decides to learn something new. This is how she comes to learn to walk the tightrope with Morrie, a talented teacher who soon proposes. However, Danu cannot love as he needs, for the grief which splinters her heart has left it hard and cold.

When the circus moves towards the famous city of Matryoshka (Danu’s birthplace), she feels the spark of love for the bright colours and complex architecture. In an attempt to connect with her parent’s ghosts, she decides to stay in the city of circles and uncover her past, and the secrets which enshroud it.

City of Circles is a sensory adventure; tactile and immersive, the reader can taste the smells carried on Matryoshka’s wind, hear the music and laughter within the city, and feel the unfathomable mourning which Danu radiates. The reader’s senses and heart are fully engaged in this book, unlike Danu’s heart, which she locks away. Jess Richards raises poignant questions of what it means to love and be loved, and what it means to live rather than simply being alive.

Complex characters, vivid descriptions and poetic prose make City of Circles a work of art which leaves the reader longing for the circus, for freedom, and for redemption. A masterpiece.

City of Circles by Jess Richards is published by Sceptre Books, and is available in South Africa from Jonathan Ball Publishers.