Description
Silver Medal Winner – 2019 Independent Book Publishers Association (IBPA) Benjamin Franklin Award for Best New Voice: Fiction
Finalist – 2019 Midwest Independent Publishers Association (MIPA) Book Awards for Fiction: Fantasy/SciFi/Horror/Paranormal
Chelsea is determined to make it to her brother’s wedding. And she’s not going to let the fact that she’s been dead for two years stop her.
Joining with her mime friend from a New York City park and her ghostly mentor with forty years of afterlife under her belt, the three women set out on foot for San Francisco. Along the way, they are faced with joy, sorrow, and the haunting surprises of the open road. This humorous and lightly macabre journey explores relationships, personal burdens, and what it means to keep moving, even when your heartbeat has stopped.
Cover art by Estee Chan
In The Traveling Triple-C Incorporeal Circus, Alanna McFall creates a marvelous, surprising ghost story that celebrates the power of theatre to lift spirits and save lives. A delightful company of living and dead performers journey across a haunted house America, facing audiences that would just as soon rip them to shreds as enjoy their shows. Through all their high drama, spooky encounters, and close calls, the Incorporeal Circus struggle with love and loss and forge deep friendships. McFall’s first novel is an exquisite meditation on embracing the past and letting it go. This book will haunt you!
—Andrea Hairston, Award-winning author of Will Do Magic For Small Change and Redwood and Wildfire
A clever juxtaposition of the absurd and the everyday, The Traveling Triple-C Incorporeal Circus by Alanna McFall will take you from laughter to the verge of tears and have you rooting for her incredible and unconventional heroines all along the way.
—Dawn Vogel, Executive Editor of DefCon One Publishing
Alanna McFall’s debut novel, The Traveling Triple-C Incorporeal Circus, is a story about what might just be the quirkiest and most unique road-trip trio you’ve ever encountered: two ghosts and a mime, walking from the East coast to the west coast to attend a wedding. Does that sound weird? It is. But in McFall’s capable hands, it’s also a moving and wonderful story about the importance of friendship and empathy, and about hard it can be to let go and move on even when you know you have to. The Triple-C trio takes you along for an odyssey filled with adventures and misadventures. McFall hooks you with her knack for writing entertaining dialogue, and for creating flawed but compelling characters. She also vividly describes the ghostly realities of life after death, and there are some bone-chilling moments in the story, including a jaw-dropping and unforgettable scene with a group of poltergeists. For all its spooky quirkiness, this is a story that never flinches from the difficult realities of life, or the afterlife. Yet it remains both joyous and uplifting, even as it deals with dark and heavy subjects like death, violence, poverty, and grief. What makes this book work so beautifully in all its poignant and slightly macabre glory, is that McFall threads a delightfully subtle and gentle sense of humour through every part of the story. It’s that warmth and light that draws you in and makes the book both funny and profoundly moving.
—Writer and Translator Maria Haskins
A delightfully queer (in all possible senses of the word) and unexpected road trip story about friendship, loss, love, and the many kinds of family. I laughed, I cried, I cheered—it’s a show like no other.
—Alex Wells, award-winning author of Hunger Makes the Wolf
I copy-edited…The Traveling Triple-C Incorporeal Circus and was pleased to do so because I think it’s one of the outstanding fantasy books of 2019…an on-the-road feminist version of Peter S. Beagle’s A Fine and Private Place. I highly recommend this book, particularly to people who love literary fantasy.
—Hugo and Nebula winner, author, writer, and teacher, Cat Rambo
“…reminiscent of Neil Gaiman’s Death…”
“…such a unique twist on the ‘road trip’ concept…”
“It’s a fabulous story, well-written, well-developed characters and a plotline that just doesn’t quit.”
“This was truly a delightful, funny, and profound read.”
—Judges’ feedback, 2019 IPBA Benjamin Franklin Awards
Silver Award Winner, Best New Voice: Fiction
Immensely charming…The Traveling Triple-C Incorporeal Circus brings a lot of ideas to the table and manages to pay all of them off in satisfying fashion. It’s weird, lovely, dark, and familiar.
—San Francisco Book Review
