The Circus Train

Set against the backdrop of World War II Europe, this historical novel follows Lena Papadopoulos from her birth in 1929 Thessaloniki, Greece, through her coming of age on a traveling circus, her wartime separation from those she loves, and her decades-long fight to claim the life she wants.

The story opens with the death of Lena's mother, Gia, shortly after giving birth. A doctor tells Lena's father, Theo Papadopoulos, a renowned illusionist, that Gia has 24 to 48 hours to live but the newborn will likely survive. Before dying, Gia makes Theo promise to keep a secret, just as she kept his.

By 1938, nine-year-old Lena lives aboard the Beddington and Sterling World of Wonders, a lavish traveling circus run by Horace Beddington III, an American impresario. Lena has used a wheelchair since infancy after contracting polio, and her physical limitations isolate her from other children. She finds solace in science, learning medicine from the staff physician, Dr. James Wilson. Her governess, Clara Smith, encourages her to be more social.

Lena's life changes during a stop in Amsterdam in December 1938, weeks after the Kristallnacht pogroms, a coordinated attack on Jewish communities across Germany and Austria. She discovers an unconscious boy with a German passport stamped with a red "J," identifying him as Jewish. Horace orders the boy removed, but Theo intervenes. The boy, 12-year-old Alexandre Robichaud, grew up in Marseille; his parents are gone. He impresses Theo with his talent for spotting misdirection.

Alexandre and Lena bond over card games and conversations; having never seen her wheelchair, Alexandre treats Lena as an equal. Theo persuades Horace to let Alexandre stay, noting that his blond hair and blue eyes will help him pass inspections by the SS, the Nazi paramilitary force. Privately, Theo pays Alexandre under contract to befriend Lena. Alexandre protests but signs, hiding the money beneath a loose floorboard alongside stolen items.

Their friendship deepens. Lena shares the Proteus cabinet, a hidden compartment Theo built for her inside the circus's Mirage Maze, and Alexandre entertains her with fabricated stories about his supposed art-dealer father, masking a violent childhood. In September 1939, war breaks out.

Dr. Wilson proposes an experimental polio treatment; it is Alexandre who first suggests Lena try walking. By 1941, after grueling therapy, Lena walks 30 steps in leg braces, reducing Theo to tears. Meanwhile, SS inspections grow dangerous, and an officer takes a keen interest in Alexandre's talents, foreshadowing trouble.

Clara, defying Theo's wishes, secretly prepares Lena for a boarding school entrance exam, and Lena is accepted to St. Ives. On her 13th birthday in Seville, Alexandre gives her a miniature orrery, a model of the solar system, and a silver dove bracelet. They share their first kiss. When they celebrate by sneaking out in Barcelona, Theo discovers them, fires Clara, and forbids Lena from seeing Alexandre.

In Rouen in August 1942, Horace's treachery emerges: Drowning in debt, he has agreed to hand Alexandre to the SS and has discovered Theo's asylum papers to flee to America. Horace gives Lena a letter from a woman named Isabella suggesting an affair with Theo, along with the contracts proving Theo paid Alexandre for his friendship. Lena confronts Theo, who confirms the documents are real. She discovers Alexandre's stolen objects and hears his confession: His father was an art thief; his mother died shielding him from his violent father; Alexandre stabbed his father and fled. Lena tells him to stay away.

When Theo confronts Horace, SS guards are waiting. Alexandre is knocked unconscious; Theo is seized. Lena slips her dove bracelet into Alexandre's pocket and, at Theo's command, hides in the Proteus cabinet as Theo promises to find her. Weeks later, a burned house outside Rouen yields six bodies and Alexandre's mother's charred necklace; Lena is told they are dead. She recovers and, in Theo's carriage, finds the money Alexandre returned with a note: "I don't need your money to be her friend" (201). Overhearing Horace plan to send her to an orphanage, Lena flees to Dorset, where Clara teaches.

The narrative reveals Theo and Alexandre survived and were sent to Theresienstadt, a Nazi garrison town in Czechoslovakia marketed as a "spa town" for prominent Jews but functioning as a ghetto and transit camp. They endure forced labor and perform magic shows. Alexandre meets Leike, a young Jewish violinist, and they grow close. He writes letters to Lena that are never sent.

In England, Clara takes Lena in. Lena excels academically and walks with increasing independence, eventually discarding her cane. She befriends Olivia Anderson, a classmate who also lost her father. In December 1943, Clara and her husband, Fitz, a Royal Air Force officer, formally adopt Lena, who changes her surname to Thomson.

In Theresienstadt, Theo proposes an escape: During a performance, they will drug two guards, drop them into a water tank, and flee. The night before, Theo reveals he is not Lena's biological father but her maternal uncle. Gia was his younger sister, who became pregnant by a married university tutor. Their father disowned them, and they posed as husband and wife in Thessaloniki. Isabella was Theo's true love, whom he gave up to raise Lena.

During the dress rehearsal, Theo, Alexandre, and Leike flee to a train station, but Attila, a fellow prisoner, has betrayed them to a gendarme. Gunfire erupts: Leike is shot, Attila is killed, and Theo is wounded. They board a freight train under fire. Leike dies in Prague from blood loss compounded by tuberculosis.

After the war, Alexandre and Theo cannot find Lena because she changed her name. Lena finishes school, teaches science in London, and meets Harry Evans, a warm photojournalist. They become engaged. After repeated rejections from English medical schools, Lena secretly applies to the Université de Paris. When Harry learns of her acceptance through a friend's slip at dinner, their argument exposes a deeper tension: Lena fears he does not believe she can succeed.

Horace, now broke, sees Lena's wedding announcement in the Daily Express and mails it to Alexandre, whose address Horace has kept for years. Alexandre travels to London, finds Clara, and learns Lena is in Paris. He goes to her hotel, tells her Theo is alive, and takes her to a masquerade ball where Theo is performing. Lena reveals herself after the show, and father and daughter embrace. Theo explains that his overprotectiveness stemmed from guilt over encouraging Gia to study, which led to the affair and her death. Lena forgives him.

That night, Alexandre and Lena walk along the Seine as old feelings resurface. Alexandre insists she attend medical school, saying he searched for her not to win her back but to reunite her with Theo. In England, Harry recognizes that Lena's heart has shifted and breaks off the engagement, believing she can succeed only if unburdened.

Lena moves to Paris, lives with Theo, and begins medical school. When she learns Alexandre is leaving that night for months of touring, a professor's words crystallize her resolve: In the absence of evidence, one must have blind faith. She rushes to the station, finds Alexandre, and asks him to wait while she finishes school. He agrees.

In the novel's epilogue, seven years later Lena graduates, one of only two women in her class, with Alexandre, Theo, Clara, and Olivia cheering. She and Alexandre marry and have a daughter named Aria. Walking through Paris, Lena hears Theo's word on the breeze: Epiméno. Persist.