Published By: Michael Joseph
Pages: 368
Released On: 12/09/2024
BERLIN, 1926: After the death of their parents, sisters Leni and Annette only have each other. Dreaming of better days, but desperate, Leni finds work at a notorious cabaret: the Babylon Circus.
From the dancer’s barely-there costumes, to the glimmering mirrors that cover the walls, the Babylon Circus is a place where reality and fantasy merge. For Leni, it’s an overwhelming new world, and she’s happiest hiding in the shadows.
Until she meets the cabaret’s resident pianist, Paul.
And so begins a love affair that will shape the lives of Leni and Annette, as they navigate the next forty years in the dark and dazzling city they call home. . .
*****
Thanks to NetGalley and Michael Joseph for the advanced copy of this title in return for an honest review.
**Contains Minor Potential Spoilers**
This is one of my most anticipated books of the year, although to be honest, whenever I finish one of Julie’s books, I’m already anticipating the next. I love her work.
I have said before that Julie is the master (or should it be mistress? That sounds a bit dodgy to me) of writing about women. They’re honest and raw, sometimes unpleasant, and quite difficult, but they’re also beautiful and recognisable and caring. This is the third of her books, and I’ve read them all and she just gets better and better. They’re original and there’s so much heart in every page and every character.
Leni was an interesting main character. A bit naïve, easily swayed, a bit obsessive maybe. But she was having to be an adult whilst still a child, being the mother, father, and sister to Annette, having to put her pride aside and do anything she could to keep them fed. So whilst she’s not a perfect character, she is the epitome of the strong women Julie has such a talent in writing.
I didn’t particularly like Annette, at least at first. She’s young, yes, and she’s lost almost everyone, doesn’t enjoy school, is left behind a lot. Which I appreciate. But she’s so whiny and irritating to me, which obviously is a credit to how Julie has written her. I found her to be selfish and at complete odds with her sister. But maybe that’s my age. Maybe if I was Annette’s age again, I could understand her decisions.
Like Julie’s other books, there are male characters, yes, but they don’t really matter to me. There’s nothing wrong with them, but they pale into the background of the women. This is their story. A story about women; strong women, women down on their luck, in love women, lonely women, scared women, alone women, abandoned women.
Whilst they may have elements of the extreme, given that they’re fictional and they have to jump off of the page, I find Julie writes women like they were our friends, our sisters, even ourselves. Whilst some authors manage to do this, I’ve never felt as strongly as I do with Julie’s work.
She has created such a vivid concept of place and time, you can see Berlin, before and after the wars, you can see the risqué outfits of the 1920s, the smoke of the cigarettes, the stranger’s hand that finds it’s way onto a bottom. It’s mainly set in the immediate aftermath of WW1, with some chapters set in the immediate aftermath of WW2, plus 10-20 years after that. I found that fascinating, especially the differences between the time after both wars.
I saw one early review that said it reminded them of Ian McEwan’s Atonement about it, and I would have to agree. Both splendid novels that really explore the joy but the difficulties between sisters, between friends, and between lovers.
It is most definitely an historical novel, but there’s romance, adventure, thrill, and 100% an epic family saga. She may only be three books in, but in my eyes, Julie Owen Moylan can do no wrong and I hope never to be without her stories.
Becoming a book blogger and reviewer was initially just a way to pass the time after losing my job in 2020 and becoming poorly, and in the time since, I have got more poorly and reading has almost become my sole confidante. So it was just a bit of fun. But by doing that, I’ve been lucky enough to receive hundreds of books to review that I may not have picked up otherwise. I can’t say for certain if I’d have picked Julie’s books off the shelf if I was buying them, I can’t know that, but being sent them has been one of the best things to happen recently, as she is a one in a million storyteller, and to think I might not have had the chance to read her words…..I think my reading life is enriched thanks to her stories.
It’s not an easy book; there’s grief, bereavement, war, injury, drug abuse, homelessness, poverty, abandonment, loneliness, betrayal, lies, lost loves. But somehow, whilst they are sad topics, it doesn’t being the story down at all, in fact it helps boost up the happy times. I think Leni and Annette are going to stay with me for a very long time.
Books By Your Bedside 