Venetia Kelly’s Traveling Show

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, ��ind him and bring him back,��thereby sending the boy on a Homeric voyage into manhood.

Interweaving a host of unforgettable creations����ing��Kelly, Venetia's violent, Mephistophelean grandfather; Sarah Kelly, Venetia's mysterious, amoral mother; and even a truth-telling ventriloquist's dummy named Blarney��rank Delaney unfurls a splendid narrative that spans half the world and a tumultuous decade.