I was able to read The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern recently while I was in Venice. It was a joy to come back each afternoon or evening to the apartment we were staying in and lose myself again for a while in the enchanting (and enchanted!) world of the circus. I was delighted to follow Celia and Marco, engaged in a duel of magical prowess to the death though neither of them realize the dire consequences of failure at the beginning of the game. Their respective teachers who train them in the use of their magical abilities have clearly been at this for quite some time, setting generation after generation of students on the perilous road to prove which instructor’s methods are better suited to unleash magic into the world (the story of Celia and Marco takes place over several years, stretching from the late 1800s to early 1900s).

The magical world of the circus comes to include a devoted group of followers whose lives become as entangled in the fate of the circus-world as the performers themselves. These followers become as critical to the life of the circus as the magicians who craft and sustain it and finally one of these devoted followers must make a choice that is as vital to the existence of the circus as the choices of Celia, Marco, and the other performers.

Magic suffuses everything in the Night Circus world, which is lovingly crafted and described by Ms. Morgenstern in this, her first novel. I heartily recommend it without reservation!