"Coney's not just where the sideshow survived. It's where it evolved. There's a hierarchy in circus life, and at Coney Island, disabled performers - 'naturals,' as they call themselves - sit at the very top."
"There's no being free on the outside without being free on the inside," proclaims the Mighty Matthias in Venessa Vida Kelley's lush and luminous debut novel, "When the Tides Held the Moon." The themes of freedom, agency, self-empowerment, community and resilience play out in a nostalgia-tinged kaleidoscope in this historic romantasy set in 1911 Coney Island.