Lady of the Burlesque Ballet (Kindle Single) (Ploughshares Solos Book 1)

In a topsy-turvy ragtime era of side-shows and bamboozlers, Irish Maupin goes from street urchin to burlesque star. Plucked from the streets as a girl and fattened up for candy-factory advertising, she navigates a sensational career around heart-break and loneliness, gaining and losing hundreds of pounds, manipulated by the men around her even as she defies them. From acclaimed Nebraska author Timothy Schaffert, this inaugural Ploughshares Solo is a surreal adult fairy tale about obesity, murder, and how we change our bodies to meet the needs of others.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Timothy Schaffert’s novel The Swan Gondola, a story of love and ghosts set among the flimflam men, snake-oil salesmen, occultists, and actresses of the 1898 Omaha World’s Fair, is forthcoming from Riverhead/Penguin. Schaffert is the author of four other novels, all from Unbridled Books: The Phantom Limbs of the Rollow Sisters,The Singing and Dancing Daughters of God, Devils in the Sugar Shop, and The Coffins of Little Hope. His work has been a Barnes & Noble Discover New Writers selection, an Indie Next pick, and a New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice. He teaches in the English Department at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, is the director/founder of the (downtown) Omaha Lit Fest, and is a contributing editor to Fairy Tale Review.

PRAISE FOR TIMOTHY SCHAFFERT

"Mr. Schaffert's sly wit and frank affection for his characters can make him sound like a very American Alexander McCall Smith."
—Janet Maslin, New York Times

"sublime … Piercing observations and sharp, subtle wit make this a standout."
—Publishers Weekly, starred review

"...showcases Schaffert's uncanny talent for combining the mystical and the realistic." —The Barnes and Noble review from Discover Great New Writers