The circus : a novel
(Book)

Originally published in Swedish in Sweden as Cirkus, based on a text included in the collection Den perfeka vännen, by Wahlstrom & Widstrand, 2009, copyright ©2017 by Jonas Karlsson.

"The narrator of The Circus is perfectly content with his quiet life. He works at a bakery counter, and in his free time organizes (and reorganizes) his record collection. He's not up to much the day his old school friend Magnus invites him to a circus, and he's certainly not expecting the simple outing to change everything in his life. But while participating in a magic trick Magnus vanishes--completely. Struggling to piece together the events that led to his friend's inexplicable disappearance, the narrator comes to realize that even the most basic facts about his life are suddenly uncertain. His friend Jallo claims to have never met Magnus, even though they went to school together. Magnus's apartment seems deserted, but is the narrator at the right address? And who is the mysterious person who keeps calling him on the phone but never says a word? Sharply unsettling, wildly clever, and its secrets exquisitely kept--The Circus is a funhouse mirror of a read, a mastery of double-meaning as well as a moving excavation of friendship, identity, and the stories we tell about ourselves"--,Provided by publisher.