Zarconi's Magic Flying Fish
Winner of the Western Australian Premier's
Book Awards 2000!
Gus' map of his epic journey
Before he came to Zarconi's, Gus didn't even know he had grandparents,
let alone ones who juggled knives and ate fire. Now he's caught up in their world of magicians, stilt-walkers, tattooed tenthands, elephant turds - and there's a snake-girl who might become his best friend or his worst enemy.
This is Zarconi's Incredible Travelling Circus, and it's full of mysterieis.
Why is everyone so secretive about Gus's family? Why won't they let him on the trapeze? Is it true that Zarconi's is cursed?
A fast-moving story of discovery, change and identity with all the drama of life under the big top.
The How and Why of Zarconi's Magic Flying Fish
Zarconi's Magic Flying Fish was my very first novel. At the time that I wrote it, all my family were involved in a community children's circus based in Thornbury, Victoria. They were called 'The Little Big Tops' and every Saturday the gymnasium of the local high school would be full of kids doing back flips, learning to juggle and racing around on stilts.
There were 60 children involved in the circus and my husband, Ken Harper, was one of the trainers. Watching the kids take amazing physical risks and their excitement about being in a circus led me to take an even deeper interest in circus and to the realisation that there was a book waiting to be written.
I'd always loved the circus world. In 1993 I attended a National Circus Convention in the UK and spent three days learning how to do acro-balance and trapeze. I learnt a lot and loved the company of the other performers but after cracking a couple of ribs, I decided watching the circus and reading about it was a lot more fun than being in it. My fascination with the lifestyle of circus people and their stories has never faded.
Little Big Tops Community Circus performing at the launch of Zarconi's Magic Flying Fish
Originally, Zarconi's was going to be a non-fiction book about Australian circus history. Australia has a fabulous circus history full of amazing yarns. We also have the highest number of circuses per capita in the world. Circuses played an important part in the development of Australia and were often the only form of entertainment that visited isolated areas. For all Australians, circus magic is fixed deep inside our collective memory, even if we don't know it.
I started gathering up great piles of fabulous tales about circus people and circus life. I read about the history of circus, attended every circus I could and studied how circus tricks were performed. Eventually, my publisher and I realised the best way to tell the story of Australian circus was through fiction. Very quickly, the character of Gus McGrath came to life and the story of his family reflected all the fascinating factual details and legends of the circus world.
Doing the research for Zarconi's Magic Flying Fish was a lot of fun. I stayed with Ashton's Family circus and interviewed both the Ashton's and members of their troupe. Many of their stories about travelling across Australia and performing in all sorts of places worked their way into the novel.
The circus in the novel follow the same route across Western Australia that I once followed myself. My journey had taken me around six months and I was incredibly moved by the beauty of the landscape. Guiding Gus and Zarconi's Incredible Travelling Circus through those breathtaking places in South Australia and Western Australia gave me a chance to revisit them in my imagination.
Stories have a life of their own. Once you bring together the many elements that are the layers in a novel, the passions and emotions of the characters become central to how well the story works. In the end, it was the hopes and the dreams of Gus, Effie and the rest of the troupe that really made this novel come together.
What the critics wrote
"Murray has given us a convincing slice of reality, with depth and insight into a boy on the cusp of adolescence, against the magical backdrop of a circus. Zarconi's Magic Flying Fish has tension, mystery, poignancy and is a rattling good yarn."
Stella Lees
Viewpoint 8
Autumn 2000
"...vividly drawn... with stand-out scenes that linger in the mind. A gutsy novel for readers aged 9-12."
Kerry White
Australian Bookseller & Publisher
October, 1999
Zarconi's Magic Flying Fish is a dramatic Australian novel about circus life, containing likeable characters, a finely modulated sentimentality and dialogue that uses the odd expletive in a perfectly acceptable way.
Michael Thorn
Times Educational Supplement, UK
July, 2000
"The narrative moves at a great pace as Gus's genealogical past is gradually revealed. The relationships between the characters, particularly Gus and Effie, are well drawn, as are the Western Australian settings.
Full of magic, mystery, and a delightful elephant, the story is meant for wide-eyed older children."
Judges Comments
Western Australian Book Awards 2000
Links
Here are a couple of sites that you might find interesting:
Mark St. Leon is a descendant of the famous St. Leon circus family and also a great historian. He’s written many books on the history of Australian circus and his work was invaluable when I wrote ‘Zarconi’s Magic Flying Fish’. Find out more about the St Leon family at Mark’s website:
This is an Australian site with information on circus and some great images from Australian circus and links to Australian circuses and museums with circus collections.
http://amol.org.au/discovernet/tales/circus.asp
This one is actually an American site but has some good stories about the lives of circus performers from around the world.
Click here to check out extracts from Zarconi's Magic Flying Fish
Fish motif for Zarconi's Magic Flying Fish by Geoff Kelly