Amita Parikh is an author, web developer and marketer from Scarborough (Toronto), Ontario. She earned a BSc Hons. from the University of Toronto. Parikh worked in the tech start-up industry in Europe and Canada for more than a decade.
Fiction
The Circus Train: A Novel
Toronto: HarperCollins Publishers, 2022.
PS8631.A74635 C57 2022
Publisher’s Synopsis (From its website)
At the World of Wonders, Europe’s most magnificent travelling circus, every moment is full of magic, and nothing is as it seems—especially for the people who put on the show
Lena Papadopoulos has never quite found her place within the circus, even as the daughter of the extraordinary headlining illusionist, Theo. Brilliant and curious, Lena yearns for the real-world magic of science and medicine, despite her father’s overprotectiveness and the limitations of her wheelchair.
Lena’s unconventional life takes an exciting turn when she rescues Alexandre, an orphan with his own secrets and a mysterious past. Over several years, as their friendship flourishes and Alexandre trains as the illusionist’s apprentice, World War II escalates around them. When Theo and Alexandre are contracted to work and perform in a model town for Jews set up by the Nazis, Lena becomes separated from everything she knows. Forced to make her own way, she must confront her doubts and dare to believe in the impossible—herself.
Awards and Honours
2022 The Globe 100 (Globe and Mail, 2 Dec. 2022)