Description
In the late 1860s, as America was recovering from Lincoln’s assassination, a man named P.T. Barnum opened a museum in New York City. Filled with oddities from around the world, it also hosted a number of sideshow freaks – including Bartholomew Fortuno’s narrator, the Human Skeleton. This is the atmospheric and utterly original story of how he fell in love with the Bearded Lady.
Bartholomew Fortuno, the World’s Thinnest Man, believes that his unusual body is a gift. Hired by none other than P.T. Barnum to work at his spectacular American Museum – a modern marvel of macabre displays and live performances by Barnum’s cast of freaks and oddities – Fortuno has reached the pinnacle of his career. But after a decade of solid performance, he finds his contentment flagging.
When a carriage pulls up outside the museum in the dead of night, bearing Barnum and a mysterious veiled woman – rumoured to be a new performer – Fortuno’s curiosity is piqued. And when Barnum asks Fortuno to follow her and report back on her whereabouts, his world is turned upside-down. Why is Barnum so obsessed with this woman? Who is she, really? And why has she taken such a hold of the hearts of those around her?
Author Information
Ellen Bryson holds a BA in English from Columbia University and an MA in creative writing from Johns Hopkins University in Washington DC. Formerly a modern dancer, she lives in southern California. The Transformation of Bartholomew Fortuno is her first novel.
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