Joe Maloney doesn’t skip school to rebel—he just doesn’t fit into its rigid walls. Bullied in his neighbourhood and drawn to the wild world outside, he finds freedom in the woods around Helmouth, where his imagination runs with fantastic creatures. But when his best friend Stanny falls under the spell of Joff, a violent survivalist, Joe seeks refuge in the crumbling Hackenschmidt’s Circus. There he meets Corinna, a girl with a mysterious pull, and begins to understand the haunting presence of the tiger that visits him at night.
