Books like Tightrope by Simon Mawer

In the unforgettable Le Cirque des Rêves, two young magicians, Celia and Marco, are locked in a nocturnal duel of wonder and will—an impossible game where love and magic collide on a stage of breathtaking spectacle.

In the orderly suburb of Shaker Heights, a new family’s arrival and a custody dispute ignite tension, revealing secrets, art, and the complex pull of motherhood in a tightly knit community.

Twelve-year‑old Nao in Tokyo wrestles with loneliness and bullying and, before she ends it all, writes a diary about her great‑grandmother, a Buddhist nun who has lived a century. Across the Pacific a novelist on a remote island discovers objects from Nao’s life and is drawn into her mystery.

In Dickens’s sweeping novel, the protracted Jarndyce and Jarndyce case in the Court of Chancery pulls together a disparate cast— from heirs torn by legal costs to a mysterious ward, a cunning lawyer, and a destitute street sweeper— exposing London’s social decay.

After his wife's death, Max Morden retreats to a seaside town from his youth, where he must confront loss, aging, and the intrusions of nearby holidaymakers.

In Victorian London, Sugar, a young prostitute, struggles to climb out of poverty while navigating the harsh social realities of the era.

Two college friends discover that love can span continents and a decade when they reunite after life‑changing choices thrust them apart.

After being adopted by a quirky Dublin couple who treat him only as a house‑guest, Cyril embarks on a life‑spanning quest to discover his origins, his place in Ireland, and the meaning of true belonging.

"In 1945, Jewish refugees by the thousands set out for Palestine. Those who made it relied on the underground to shelter them; taking false names, they blended with the population, joining the wildly different factions fighting for independence. "City of Secrets" follows one survivor, Brand, as he tries to regain himself after losing everyone he's ever loved. Now driving a taxi provided--like his new identity--by the underground, he navigates the twisting streets of Jerusalem as well as the overlapping, sometimes deadly loyalties of the resistance. Alone, haunted by memories, Brand tries to become again the man he was before the war--honest, strong, capable of moral choice. He falls in love with Eva, a fellow survivor and member of his cell, and commits himself to the revolution, accepting missions that grow more and more dangerous even as he suspects he's being used by his cell's dashing leader, Asher. By the time Brand understands the truth, it's too late." -- jacket.

A young detective is called to investigate threatening letters in Victorian London.

A London businessman wakes up as a Finnish scientist in Oslo and must navigate a perilous journey through Norway, Finland, and Soviet Russia to survive a kidnapping plot.

In seventeenth‑century Isfahan, a young weaver rises from servant to celebrated rug designer, while navigating duty, secrecy and the limits of love.