The Wire-Walker, by James Janko (Regal House Publishing, 2025, #20.95, 310pp PB)
The cover design with illustration, colors, and title is only slightly magnetic and I probably would not have purchased the book, The Wire-Walker. I might have thought it was about a circus, which, in a way, it is. But it is so much more than just a book about a circus. Although the title is 'appropo' I would suggest something more engaging to grab the reader's attention. However, the praise from other authors that is included made my decision for me, even though I knew next to nothing about this part of the world.
Wire-Walker reads like a work of fiction, which is actually is, with lovely creative prose.
Our 16 year-old Palestinian protagonist lives in a refugee camp* and has learned to walk tightropes so she goes to the 'other' side (Israel) to improve her skills in the circus for kids, The Flying Kids, in which she is an 'aerialist' not a 'tightrope walker.'
One of the subplots will have you reading fast and faster to see what her twin brother finds and finds out. ----------------------------
*Balata has dwellings so crowded they remind me of one of the slums in the Far East with alleys so narrow that one can touch buildings on both sides at the same time and, when looking up, can see only a sliver of sky and only at noon.
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