Product details
- ISBN 9781399737395
- Weight: 530g
- Dimensions: 164 x 236mm
- Publication Date: 01 May 2025
- Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton
- Publication City/Country: GB
- Product Form: Hardback
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'Compulsive, heartbreaking' Clare Leslie Hall
'Gorgeously written' Jennie Godfrey
'A tale of dazzle and determination' Daily Mail
FOUR WOMEN. A MILLION DREAMS.
Scotland, 1910. Born into the world of the circus, Lena now stands at a crossroads. With the sudden death of her father, she faces a stark choice: get married or get a job. The fairgrounds are no place for a woman to go it alone.
Until flame-haired Violet, known to all as 'the greatest trapeze artist that ever lived', suggests they do exactly that. With her outspoken ways and her refusal to marry, Violet is as much an outcast as Lena. What do they have to lose?
Recruiting new performers including bareback horse-rider Rosie and acrobat Carmen, the four women take charge of their own show, their own finances and their own destinies.
But the fairgrounds are a dangerous place: misogyny is rife, violence a continual threat, and buried secrets are beginning to threaten all they hold dear. Together, they must forge their own path to freedom.
FOR THEY ARE THE SHOW WOMEN. AND THE SHOW MUST GO ON.
READERS LOVE THE SHOW WOMAN
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 'Held my interest to the very last page'
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 'Complete sensory immersion, such is the depth and breadth of the descriptive narrative'
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 'Beautifully written, lovable characters, gripping narrative'
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 'This extraordinary debut is bursting with energy and imagination'
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 'A terrific read'
Emma Cowing is an award-winning journalist and writer. She has written for a wide number of publications including The Sunday Times, Mail on Sunday, Guardian Weekend Magazine, Spectator and Scotsman.
Emma is a former Feature Writer of the Year at the Scottish Press Awards, and two-time Interviewer of the Year. She holds an Ochberg Fellowship in Journalism and Trauma at Columbia Journalism School in New York, for her work covering the war in Afghanistan, and its aftermath.
Emma was shortlisted for the 2023 Cheshire Novel Prize, and longlisted for the 2023 Bath Novel Award and Blue Pencil First Novel Award. The Show Woman is her first novel.
