"The haunting story of a family of broken dreamers, the promises they make but cannot keep, and the child that survives them, The Circle That Fits is a beautiful, nuanced novella of longing and belonging. The son of two carnival workers, Daniel spends his childhood in a trailer on the Midway. His experience is limited to the transient, hand-to-mouth grind of a carny. Under the bright lights, to the sound of the calliope, are constant threats and daily cruelties, heightened by moments of tenderness. Merging a coming-of-age story with an unflinching engagement of poverty, homelessness, and the American mythology of the freedom of the open road, The Circle That Fits is a gritty, heartbreaking, and ultimately hopeful work. It slipped under my skin like a sliver of glass and remains there."

— Jenny Irish, author of I Am Faithful

“At the heart of Kevin Lichty’s The Circle That Fits are two spectacles: the public display of a traveling carnival’s thrills and the private drama of a fracturing family’s pain, neither of which can exist apart from the other, at least not for our young protagonist. Lichty renders both his worlds with precise, surprising language and an enviably moving surrealism, one grounded always in the rich emotions running through this gripping novella.”

— Matt Bell, author of Appleseed