Venetia Kelly's Traveling Show. A Novel of Ireland

BONUS: This edition contains an excerpt from Frank Delaney's The Matchmaker of Kenmare. January 1932: Ben MacCarthy and his father watch a vagabond variety revue making a stop in the Irish countryside. After a two-hour kaleidoscope of low comedy, juggling, tumbling, and other entertainments, Ben's father, mesmerized by Venetia Kelly, the troupe's magnetic headliner, makes a fateful decision: to abandon his family and set off on the road with Miss Kelly and her caravan.
Ben's mother, shattered by the desertion, exhorts, "Find him and bring him back, " thereby sending the boy on a Homeric voyage into manhood. Interweaving a host of unforgettable creations-"King" Kelly, Venetia's violent, Mephistophelean grandfather; Sarah Kelly, Venetia's mysterious, amoral mother; and even a truth-telling ventriloquist's dummy named Blarney-Frank Delaney unfurls a splendid narrative that spans half the world and a tumultuous decade.