Carnival

de Rawi Hage

Fly is a taxi driver in a crime-ridden apocalyptic metropolis. Raised in the circus, Fly sees everything, taking in all of the city's carnivalesque beauty and ugliness as he roves through its dizzying streets in his taxi. Fly is a reader, too, his tiny apartment filled with books. His best friend is Otto, a political activist who's in and out of jails and asylums. One night Fly meets Mary, a book-loving passenger with a domineering husband. So begins a romance that is, for Fly, a brief glimmer of light amid the shadows and grit of the Carnival city. Along with Otto and Mary, Fly introduces us to madmen and revolutionaries, magicians and prostitutes as he picks them up and drops them off, traveling through a nightmarish town that is--we can't help but notice--a parable for our own debauched, unjust world.--From publisher description.