Tonic and Balm: A Novel

By: Stephanie Allen

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Synopsis: This series of linked short stories brings to life the world of a traveling medicine show as it moves from one Pennsylvania town to another in the years following World War I. Tildy the sword swallower, Doc Sauer of questionable repute, Lily the carnival barker, and the song-and-dance performers Ma and Pa Fleet are among the cast of characters who thread their way through these stories. Linking all of their lives is Antoinette Riddick, a woman with advanced and untreated hydrocephaly advertised as "Sheba, Queen of the Nile." At a time when white and African American performers stayed at separate boarding houses, the show is a place where people of both races work and play together, quarrel, and support one another through hard times.

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