FREE: The Bearded Lady by Sharlee Dieguez

The listing, The Bearded Lady by Sharlee Dieguez has ended.

This is an advanced reading copy

Set against the colorful, bizarre backdrop of a traveling circus in the early part of the twentieth century, The Bearded Lady is the story of two high-spirited, orphaned sisters - one conventionally beautiful, the other possessing a rather eccentric sort of attraction - who embark on a fascinating and bittersweet coming-of-age journey with their adoptive family of misfits that transforms their lives forever. Thus begins an odd and wonderful story set in rural Quigley, Georgia. Jessie and Tweets are beyond doubt two of the most memorable characters since Tom and Huck, as if seen through the eyes of Diane Arbus.
This mind-bending tour de force eloquently explores concepts of beauty within our society and reveals freakish attractiveness in strange places. Within a loving, extended family of circus workers who are forced to confront their own troubling circumstances, traditionally defined gender roles are blurred. In the pages of The Bearded Lady, Sharlee Funai provides a compelling exploration of the sisterhood of women when faced with hardship, competition, doomed love, affairs, manipulative employers, and terrifying obstacles.