The Circus and the Atom
About this audiobook
New Year 1988/1989: A theatre student, a taxi driver, a partisan, and a crook join a detective’s family in Kiev for an ill-fated reunion. They and the Soviet nation face a violent reckoning as old secrets and fugitive hopes emerge.
Winner of the 2026 Independent Press Award for Literary Fiction and for World Literature
Winner of the Best of Novel prize in the 2025 Sunspot Literary Journal Solar Flare Contest
Sequel to The Girl in the Water, winner of the 2023 Independent Press Award for Literary Fiction
“riveting … a high-stakes, character-driven drama infused with a palpable sense of political noir” —Printed Word Reviews
“another testament to [Howse’s] writing prowess” —BlueInk Review
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About the author
Joseph Howse writes fiction and poetry, as well as technical books on computer programming and image analysis. He lives in a Nova Scotian fishing village, where he chats with his cats and nurtures an orchard of hardy fruit trees. His debut novel, The Girl in the Water, has won the 2023 Independent Press Award for Literary Fiction and 2023 IAN Awards for Outstanding Multicultural Fiction. The sequel, The Circus and the Atom, has won the Best of Novel prize in the 2025 Sunspot Literary Journal Solar Flare Contest.
Annette Chown loves to tell a good story and have a good natter. She fell in love with acting when she joined the Bristol Old Vic Youth Theatre and she went on to train at Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama (RWCMD). The first audiobook she narrated was Weird, by Jeremy Strong, and since then she’s narrated a variety of titles from Enid Bagnold’s National Velvet to Jess Ryder’s thrillers including The Ex-Wife. She also played Molly in the BBC Radio 4 full-cast dramatisation of Michael Morpurgo’s Private Peaceful, which was recorded on location in the beautiful Devonshire countryside and will always hold a special place in her heart.
