The Great Bravura: A Novel

Description

Since adolescence, Bravura and salt of the earth Susie have been partners in magic and best friends, as well as occasional bedmates. But when the two performers hire the mysterious and alluring Lena as a third banana to jazz up the act, Bravura falls madly in love. Lena believes in magic-and not just the rabbit-out-of-a hat kind. She encourages Bravura to believe in her own supernatural powers, and when Susie balks, conflict ensues. Things really go south during the classic "Disappearing Box" act, when Susie disappears for real. With her pal presumed dead, and Bravura the prime suspect, the magician must act quickly to find Susie-hopefully alive! To prove her innocence, Bravura must uncover the holes in her own story-even if it means incriminating herself, and her precious Lena, in the process.

Jill Dearman is the author of Bang the Keys (Penguin), a book for writers, as well as Queer Astrology for Men and Queer Astrology for Women (St. Martins), which will be reissued by MacMillan. She is a broadly published journalist and award-winning prose writer whose work has been published in New York Stories, North Atlantic Review, The Portland Review, Lilith, and numerous other publications. A native New Yorker, mystic-about-town, and lifelong film fanatic, she enjoys taking imaginative forays along the seedy side of the street. For more, visit www.jilldearman.com.

"Jill Dearman is the New Queen of Noir." -Go Magazine "Brutal and magical and sexy as hell. Dearman's noir voice shatters boundaries I never knew existed." -Augusten Burroughs, author, Running With Scissors. "A rich, noirish picture of Olde New York with a punk sensibility that rocks the senses. Dearman's characters are twisted, doomed, with a lust for life." -Roberta Bayley, photographer and author of Patti Smith and Blank Generation Revisited: The Early Days of Punk Rock. "Sapphically ardent, meta-absurd, and Nin-sexy all at once, Jill Dearman's tale is a triumph of mysterious pleasures: a Colette martini with a drop of Robbe-Grillet vermouth and a Jeanette Winterson olive." -Michael Atkinson, author of Exile Cinema and Hemingway Deadlights. "The Great Bravura straddles two worlds: her feet are firmly planted on earth, among a gritty ragtag group of early-20th century circus performers, while her hands reach for the stars, drawing the reader into a magical mystery realm where fantasy and sorcery are commonplace. Dearman builds on the tension created by the two milieus bumping into each other on the page to ultimately create a morality tale reminiscent of another era the tragedies of ancient Greece." -Aaron Krach, artist, journalist, and author of Half-Life "With the illusion of a good magic show and the captivating edge of the early 20th century, The Great Bravura spellbinds readers in its twisted tale." -RT Reviews