Girl Flees Circus
When nineteen-year-old aviatrix Katie Burke crash lands her biplane on the only street in No Name, New Mexico, her arrival changes her life and the lives of everyone around her. As Katie and her craft need repair, locals take her in and help her, including a schoolteacher who longs for Katie's friendship, an interracial couple who own the town's diner, a handsome young mechanic who lives in a teepee, and a shell-shocked veteran of World War I.
As her story unfolds, Katie's mysteries deepen--revealing shocking secrets, a scandalous past, and a future in true peril. Girl Flees Circus takes flight the moment Katie crashes to earth, promising a journey into the lives of a glamorous, redheaded stranger and the people she will change forever.
Not to be missed.'--Library Journal (starred)
Smith's cinematic storytelling carries great warmth and energy, with an enduring optimism in the possibilities of reinvention that is as American as the sunny Southwest itself.'--The Dallas Morning News
High-flying entertainment in a down-to-earth tale.'--Lone Star Literary Life
A squadron of great characters.'--Publishers Weekly
Girl Flees Circus is a vacation to a place in the past you'll remember for years to come.'--Sharon Oard Warner, author of Writing the Novella
I absolutely loved it. The writing is stellar. The characters stay with you, and the story line is fresh, the dialogue wonderful. I laughed in many places but also felt each character's regrets and sadness. Brilliant!'--Ann Weisgarber, author of The Glovemaker: A Novel
This is a hell of a read. Girl Flees Circus is the closest you'll come to reinventing your life from an armchair: all new people, fresh observations, wit, and achingly beautiful language.'--Lisa Schamess, author of Borrowed Light
This little settlement so far from our urban worlds wouldn't strike us as a place we'd want to live, but it comes vividly alive with Katie's arrival. The inhabitants are ordinary people in an ordinary place that Smith has made seem magical.'--Jim Sanderson, author of El Camino del Rio
C. W. Smith is an award-winning author of novels, short stories, essays, and a memoir. His works include Steplings, Buffalo Nickel, and Letters from the Horse Latitudes. A native of Hobbs, New Mexico, Smith now lives in Dallas, Texas.
Arrival
The Guest
Repairs Begin
The Salon
Here Comes the Sheriff
Departure
Civis Aerius Sum
Afterword
