From the back of the book:

"While in Copenhagen, Sara Wheeler, a Toronto journalist, happens upon Cirkus Mirak, a touring Ethiopian children's circus. She later meets and is convinced to drive the circus founder, Raymond Renaud, through the night from Toronto to Montreal. Such chance beginnings lead to later fateful encounters, as renowned novelist Catherine Bush artfully confronts the destructive power of allegations.

With Accusation, Bush again proves herself one of Canada's finest authors as she examines the impossibility inherent in attempting to uncover "the truth." After a friend of Sara's begins work on a documentary about the circus, unsettling charges begin to float to the surface, disturbing tales of sexual and physical abuse at the hands of Raymond. Accounts and anecdotes mount, denunciations fly, and while Sara tries to untangle the narrative knots and determine what to believe, the concept of a singular (truth) becomes slippery. Her present search is simultaneously haunted by her past."

Moving between Canada, Ethiopia, and Australia, Accusation follows a network of lives that intersect with life-altering consequence, painfully revealing that the best of intentions can still lead to disaster, yet from disaster spring seeds of renewal and hope.

Catherine Bush is a beautiful, intellectual writer whose attention to craft just shines off every page. Consider this character description: There was a touch of self-consciousness in the way he used his voice, as if he were playing an instrument, yet his warmth and combination of fervour and charm overtook whatever was manipulative. He breathed out a generosity that made him the kind of man you felt compelled to watch." After reading hundreds of books with throw-away descriptions about how tall someone is, or what color their hair is, what a relief it is to find myself in the hands of a masterful prose-smith.

Beyond the wonderful technical aspects of the book, Bush tackles the big moral, ethical questions. A man is accused of a reprehensible crime. How does one defend oneself against accusation? She says, "What did true denial sound like? If accused, you were speaking always, into the wind of the possiblity of not being believed, you had to try to convince your listener, and anything might sound defensive or overcompensatory or strident, you battered yourself against the wall of what you had not done but others claimed you had, and somehow you had to dissolve the wall or leap over it.. . . What was it that Raymond Renaud had said in teh car that July night, something about how when people believe a thing to be true it is very hard to convince them it isn't. It is very difficult to prove something in the negative: I did not do it. Had he spoken with the vehemence of someone who'd already had an experience of trying to counter another's claim, of not being believed.?"

At first I wasn't convinced she'd chosen the right narrator. Sara is a peripheral narrator, although her job as a journalist gives her more opportunity both to ferret out the truth and to (inadvertently) possibly become part of the story. However, I was soon won over. By having the reader experience the story through Sara, we are allowed to doubt as she doubts, to cry out for justice as she does, to feel her ambivalence and to question our own ability to find the truth. It's a risky choice, but one that works, and I tip my hat to her.

It's a book that makes you think, and keeps you turning pages. Recommended. ( )

This is a very powerful novel about accusations; about how, once made, accusations linger in the public realm, and in the relationship between people who believe or reject the accusation.

Sara, a Canadian reporter, happens upon an Ethiopian circus and is immediately charmed and amazed by the child performers. She later meets the man (fellow Canadian Raymond Renaud) who runs the circus and trains the children, who would otherwise likely live in poverty.

Later, serious allegations of sexual abuse are made against Raymond, and Sara is unsure what to believe. Her feelings are complicated as she was once falsely accused of a more minor crime.

Sparsely written, leaving room for different interpretations...this is a very good book. ( )

Complicated analysis of how an accusation or allegation of wrongdoing can alter a person's life forever. The protagonist is a free lance journalist who had once been wrongfully accused of stealing a wallet from another woman at the Y, so she is very sensitive to the impacts as she investigates allegations of physical and sexual abuse by the leader of a children's circus in Ethiopia and also leaders of orphanages in Africa. Satisfactory read which at times rises to very interesting. ( )

In this face-paced world of technology and communications, applying a label to someone without giving a second thought has become a hurtful and dangerous task. Catherine Bush has looked at the anguish and hurt of individuals who have been wrongfully labeled and created a complex and wonderful piece of literature in her novel Accusation.

Page 10-11

She knew nothing for certain. It was only an accusation. Abuse: the article didn't specify what kind. Yet, as she knew, an accusation, regardless of truth, has its own life when let loose in the world. Experience had taught her this. The words, released, went on uncoiling themselves. A pulse rapped in her head.
What to do?
Do nothing. Or call Juliet Levin to tell her what she had discovered.

The story deals with the allegations of physical and sexual abuse around a circus founder based in Ethiopia. But as the search for the truth grows, the protagonist recalls her own encounters with false accusations and tries to deal with her own personal issues with family and friends.

Link to my complete review ( )