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The acclaimed author of Finnie Walsh turns from small-town hockey to the extraordinary intrigues of circus life during the heyday of the Big Top through the story of Salvo Ursari, undisputed master of the high wire.
As the novel opens, it is the summer of 1976. Salvo is 66 years old and has decided he can never retire. Already famous thanks to his days in an American circus, he has made a living in recent times performing solo walks of extraordinary difficulty. And so he finds himself attempting to accomplish the most difficult feat of his career: to walk a wire strung between the twin towers of the World Trade Center, 1350 feet from the ground.
Transylvania in 1919 is a place of poverty and persecution for the Rom people. Salvo follows his father to a village church, where the senior Ursari -- the only man who volunteers for the task -- is to climb the steeple to replace a large iron crucifix that had been removed for safe-keeping during the war. He restores the cross, but it is not properly attached and as they are leaving, it falls, killing a priest. When the villagers exact their revenge, Salvo’s parents are killed and he is separated from his brother and sister. Thus begins nearly a lifetime of being forced to flee from suspicion and misfortune that takes the reader from Europe to the US to British Columbia’s Fraser Valley and back to Manhattan.
Ascension combines powerful storytelling -- including stories of the Romany people, poverty-stricken but resourceful, and rich in legend -- with great surprise and originality; Steven Galloway makes it clear why he is one of the hottest young writers in Canada today.
Excerpt from Ascension
“Once a newspaper man had asked him what it felt like to walk high above the crowd, with death looming beneath you and success a long way off on the other platform. Salvo had told the man that it was like being a bird, an eagle, but he knew that wasn’t true at all. He was a man, nothing more. Still, he was a man who dared do things other men watched and admired and were jealous of. He walked for these people as much as for anyone. But today he was walking only for himself. That was the difference with these solo walks. When he was among them, he was one of them, but here he is timeless, one man on a wire far above it all, in a separate place. He was not free, but he was as free as he would ever be.”
From the Hardcover edition.
As the novel opens, it is the summer of 1976. Salvo is 66 years old and has decided he can never retire. Already famous thanks to his days in an American circus, he has made a living in recent times performing solo walks of extraordinary difficulty. And so he finds himself attempting to accomplish the most difficult feat of his career: to walk a wire strung between the twin towers of the World Trade Center, 1350 feet from the ground.
Transylvania in 1919 is a place of poverty and persecution for the Rom people. Salvo follows his father to a village church, where the senior Ursari -- the only man who volunteers for the task -- is to climb the steeple to replace a large iron crucifix that had been removed for safe-keeping during the war. He restores the cross, but it is not properly attached and as they are leaving, it falls, killing a priest. When the villagers exact their revenge, Salvo’s parents are killed and he is separated from his brother and sister. Thus begins nearly a lifetime of being forced to flee from suspicion and misfortune that takes the reader from Europe to the US to British Columbia’s Fraser Valley and back to Manhattan.
Ascension combines powerful storytelling -- including stories of the Romany people, poverty-stricken but resourceful, and rich in legend -- with great surprise and originality; Steven Galloway makes it clear why he is one of the hottest young writers in Canada today.
Excerpt from Ascension
“Once a newspaper man had asked him what it felt like to walk high above the crowd, with death looming beneath you and success a long way off on the other platform. Salvo had told the man that it was like being a bird, an eagle, but he knew that wasn’t true at all. He was a man, nothing more. Still, he was a man who dared do things other men watched and admired and were jealous of. He walked for these people as much as for anyone. But today he was walking only for himself. That was the difference with these solo walks. When he was among them, he was one of them, but here he is timeless, one man on a wire far above it all, in a separate place. He was not free, but he was as free as he would ever be.”
From the Hardcover edition.
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Review:
"One of the most suspenseful introductory chapters in Canadian literature. ... Once you're a handful of paragraphs into Ascension" "you're rapt; this is a book that comples attention, then holds it throughout.... His knack for a gripping story never falters." -- "The Georgia Straight" "Galloway shows a rare flair for inhabiting minds at moments of exhilaration and peril.... His attention to detail lends an uncanny veracity to the skywalk passages and the book has loads of neat lore..... Ascension is a novel that has stuck in my mind, and I don't expect it to leave any time soon." -- "The Gazette "(Montreal) "Steven Galloway negotiates a mesmerizing line.... Rising above all else soars the elegance of the storytelling. Galloway's balance on the narrative line is a pleasure to experience." -- "Vancouver Sun" "This is an rengaging read. Each episode, like the high wire, is tautly strung be
Book Description:
'Crafted with unforgettable imagery and heartbreaking simplicity, Galloway's small novel speaks forcefully to the triumph of the spirit in the face of overwhelming despair.' Washington Post
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- PublisherThorndike Pr
- Publication date2004
- ISBN 10 0786262621
- ISBN 13 9780786262625
- BindingHardcover
- Number of pages396
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Ascension
Published by
Thorndike Press
(2004)
ISBN 10: 0786262621
ISBN 13: 9780786262625
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Book Description Hardcover. Condition: New. The book is unread, clean and new. Some faint shelf wear. ; 0.99 x 8.82 x 5.75 Inches; A New York Times BestsellerIt is the summer of 1976 and Salvo Ursari, a man of retirement age, is walking on a taut wire strung between the twin towers of New York's World Trade Center. This riveting moment opens the story of Salvo Ursari, a Transylvanian boy who found his way to the competitive world of the American circus. Ascension combines heart-pounding descriptions of high-altitude acrobatics with mesmerizing detail of Romany and circus culture. Seller Inventory # 14462
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