Ascension
By: Steven Galloway
Publisher: Atlantic; Atlantic Books
Published: 2010
Place of publication: London
Language: eng
Number of pages: 277
ISBN-13: 9781843547525
Subjects: Romanian Americans; Fiction; Tightrope walking; History
Description: "It is the summer of 1976 and Salvo Ursari, a man of retirement age, is walking on a taut wire strung between the twin towers of New York's World Trade Centre, almost 1400 feet above the city. It is the most challenging performance of his life. Far below him in the gaping crowd stands his wife, Anna, to whom he has made a solemn promise: this wire walk will end his career. As a boy growing up in Transylvania, Salvo Ursari is haunted and inspired by the gypsy folklore that forms his heritage. When a tragic fire that envelops his entire family, Salvo is forced to flee his village and begin a lifetime's odyssey that takes him through the Transylvanian forests, to the streets Budapest - where he first learns the skills of a wire-walker - and eventually to the United States during the heyday of the Big Top."--Provided by publisher.