Home of the American Circus, Allison Larkin
Home of the American Circus, Allison Larkin
List: $29.99 | Sale: $21.00
Club: $14.99

Home of the American Circus

Author: Allison Larkin

Narrator: Julia Whelan

Unabridged: 13 hr 25 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 05/06/2025

Categories: Fiction, Women, Family Life


Synopsis

The acclaimed author of the “lyrical coming-of-age novel” (Good Morning America) The People We Keep returns with a luminous contemporary women’s fiction story about strong female characters, family estrangement, found family, and the transformative power of redemption.

It’s been ten years since Freya Arnalds left a goodbye note on her parents’ kitchen table and fled her hometown of Somers, New York, driving up the coast to disappear into a lackluster life as a bartender in Maine. But, on the cusp of her thirtieth birthday, when an emergency leaves her short on rent, Freya returns to Somers to live in the derelict house she inherited after her parents’ untimely death, and soon discovers that her fifteen-year-old niece, Aubrey, is secretly living there.

Despite all attempts to lay low in her old town, Freya reunites with childhood friends, encounters familial enemies, and stokes old flames while she fights to stay afloat and give her niece a better life than the one she’s had. As they reconnect, Freya and Aubrey learn to lean on each other, working to restore the house and come to terms with the devastating events that pulled them apart years ago.

Set in the birthplace of the American circus, this deeply moving novel examines the mythology of a broken family, the weight of the past, and the complicated journey of finding home.

About Allison Larkin

Allison Larkin is the internationally bestselling author of the novels The People We KeepStayWhy Can’t I Be You, and Swimming for Sunlight. Her short fiction has been published in The Summerset Review and Slice, and nonfiction in Author in Progress, a how-to guide from Writer’s Digest Books, and the dog anthology I’m Not the Biggest Bitch in This Relationship. She lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with her husband, Jeremy, and their rescue dog, Roxy.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Nilufer on April 13, 2025

It's practically a crime to give this book anything less than five stars—it deserves at least ten! Allison Larkin once again proves herself a master of crafting deeply nuanced characters and slow-burning, small-town fiction that resonates on an emotional level. With Home of the American Circus, she......more

Goodreads review by Jayme on May 06, 2025

I loved “The People We Keep” so, I thought I had a 5 star read lined up, but, this one didn’t quite deliver for me… Somers, New York-the birthplace of the American Circus, is the setting for this tale. It’s the place where the first circus elephant, Bet, is memorialized, though there are many version......more

Goodreads review by emilybookedup on May 09, 2025

this book was so good! i liked it more than her debut THE PEOPLE WE KEEP and highly recommend the audiobook—Julia Whelan narrates and brought this little town and all its characters to life so well! 🎧 read if you like: small town settings, family drama, coming of age, character driven novels i kept th......more

Goodreads review by Maren’s Reads on May 17, 2025

I think this may be my top read of 2025. Full review to come. NOTES WHILE READING: 100% Big tears <3 88% Shaking my head at myself for how emotionally connected I get to characters and their relationships. 78% When the characters you want so badly to be together don’t seem as though they will be. 40%......more

Goodreads review by Bryn on April 22, 2025

My blurb for this book: Home of the American Circus is a tender and heartbreaking exploration of what it's like to come crawling back to a home you once fled. Amid her keen observations on life in small towns, Larkin shows us the crushing despair of failure and the fearlessness it brings. You will co......more