Ascension

New York, 1976. Sixty-six-year-old Salvo Ursari stands 400 metres above the earth, suspended on a wire strung between the twin towers of the World Trade Center. He has promised his wife Anna this will be his final walk on the wire. So begins Steven Galloway's epic tale of one man's life and abiding passion. The nine-year-old Salvo, a Romany gypsy, escapes to Budapest from his village in Transylvania after a family tragedy. From there he moves to Berlin and then, in the 1930s, flees to America, where he enjoys tremendous success as the star attraction of the Fisher-Fielding Circus Company. With its irresistible combination of gypsy folklore, carnival life and near impossible feats, Ascension is the most uplifting novel of the year.