The Bounce

by Betsy Tobin

From the award-winning author of Bone House, Ice Land, and Crimson China...An extraordinary novel of love, death and lions, set in the glamorous and squalid circus world of London in the 1870s.


Nineteen-year-old Nathan crosses the Atlantic in search of the mother who abandoned him as a young child. He takes a job in a circus south of the Thames, where he is quickly caught in a complex web of desire.


The Bounce is gripping, vivid, powerfully a stunning story of mothers and sons, rejection and belonging, and the treacherous pull of love.


‘One glimpse of the fantastical and seedy world of the Victorian circus and you’re utterly drawn in…Delightful and bittersweet.’ - The Big Issue


‘Tobin’s treatment of the animals is a triumph…Avoiding anthropomorphic cliché, she deftly portrays the discomfort of a lioness in the last stages of pregnancy, the awkwardness of her mate and the sheer, muscle-bound physicality of the creatures themselves.’ - Daily Mail


‘This novel can only be described in terms of something delicious like a real pavlova, full of wonderful layers for your intellectual teeth…A stunning novel and worth the concentrated reading it deserves.’ - The Historical Novels Review


‘Beautifully written…satisfying.’ - The Independent


‘Worth rolling up for this darkly romantic book.’ - Play


‘A sad and powerful book, which leaves a strong emotional imprint.’ - The Bookseller


‘Spell-binding…a captivating work from a prize-winning author.’ Lancashire Evening Post

Genres: Historical

ebook

First published August 5, 2002

About the author

Betsy Tobin was born in the U.S. and moved to England in 1989, where she now lives with her husband and children. Her first novel, Bone House, was short-listed for the Commonwealth Prize, and won the Herodotus Prize in the United States. Her other novels include The Bounce, Ice Land, and Crimson China. Crimson China was Radio 4 Book At Bedtime in the UK, and was short-listed for Epic Romantic Novel of the Year.

Her latest book, THINGS WE COULDN'T EXPLAIN, is available for pre-order now on Amazon in the UK. (Digital ebook available in August. Paperback coming in November 2014!)

Watch the trailer at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zA_TX...

Reviews

[Rachel · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book because it's subject matter was unique and the novel as a whole was thought provoking. I found this a satisfying read. The characters were all unique from one another and yet the reader believed that there was always more to learn about the characters. There are some poignant moments in the novel and some quietly fantastic elements to it. For me this was a nice break from the usual novels I read.

[Nicholas · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5

[Kay Wells · Rating 4 out of 5]

Completely different read for me to choose.set in the 1870s life working in a circus with lions. All in vain while on the look out for his mother who abandoned as a young child.
Good read

[P.D.R. Lindsay · Rating 5 out of 5]

Now this is an historical! Wow, what a book. It’s one of those that can only be described in terms of something delicious like a luscious chocolate gateau or a real pavlova, gourmet food with layers you can sink your teeth into. ‘The Bounce’ is full of wonderful layers for your intellectual teeth. For me good historical novels are like good science fiction novels, they examine our fears, foibles and ways of thinking in a setting so different from our own, but through characters who feel like us, that we are forced to rethink. This ‘The Bounce’ does so well. It’s the sort of book I wish I could write and I envy Ms Tobin her talent.

On the surface ‘The Bounce’ is a story about a young American showman, Nathan, coming to London in the 1870s to find his equestrienne mother. She left him when he was four and he doesn’t understand why. This is the first layer, loving and losing.

But the novel is also Queen’s story. She’s the lioness who is captured and brought to London, bought by Nathan’s mother for her menagerie and trained by Nathan. Betsy Tobin uses multiple view points to tell the tale so Queen tells her own story. This is the layer about freedom and loss of freedom, of choices and being denied choices.

Then there are the other characters, Lulu the man/woman tight rope artiste, and Nan, the orange seller, and Nan’s childhood hanger-on, Shad. All of them love and lose, have choices and no choices, and are not loved in return. Only Nan gains love in the end. Love and pain, frustration and hurt, it’s a very human mix.

And the title? Well the bounce was a highly dangerous manoeuvre that master lion tamers sometimes made their lions perform. It involved having total mastery, arousing the lions to an excited state, moving them round the cage and then challenging them. If you were a master, rather than attack, the lions would literally bounce off the cage walls. And in Betsy Tobin’s novel her characters, driven by their different loves, losses, pain and frustrations, are stirred into a human version of the bounce. It’s a stunning novel and worth the concentrated reading it deserves.

[Terri · Rating 3 out of 5]

I had this book on my shelves for years. It was a present and somewhere I had gotten the impression that it was a teenage read. This I found off-putting as I generally don't like this genre. It was bugging me that I had an unread book so I finally had a look at some reviews and realised that I was wrong.

I'm glad I gave it a go as the picture drawn of circus life in Victorian times was interesting. It even showed us life from the caged lion's point of view.

[Janet · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really really loved this book from the first to the last page. Overall Tobin is a very fine author but this book on circus life in the late nineteenth century is a treat. I admire the way she depicts the feelings and thoughts of the entertainers, including two lions.

[Fangface666 · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting little look at circus life.