The Sword Swallower’s Daughter

Henry Amedeo Burns, aka Jonda the Great

My father, Henry Amedeo Burns, was the inspiration behind my novel THE SWORD SWALLOWER’S DAUGHTER.

The worst part about seeing your six-year-old sister die is knowing you lied about being responsible. As Sheila Pace bleeds her guilt in cuts between her fingers, she rages against herself in a feral lifestyle that numbs the pain. When she discovers her father faked his death over his own guilt in her sister’s slaying, her life takes on a bizarre twist. Despite her self-destructive rituals, Sheila manages to graduate college with a degree in English Literature, but slips into career obscurity while waiting tables at a beachside bar and grill.

Layered within Sheila’s adult story are excerpts from the memoir she is writing about a year of death, divorce, and devotion to her unconventional father, “Ripovi the Great,” a sword swallower at the legendary Long Beach Pike. A litany of broken relationships and her father’s diagnosis of the devastating degenerative disease called Huntington’s, shape Sheila into a woman who overcomes her shame, faces her own risk of inheriting the disease, and transcends the self-inflicted reproach of being the sword swallower’s daughter.

THE SWORD SWALLOWER’S DAUGHTER is a high-concept literary novel about a young woman’s spiral of shame, guilt and finally self-redemption.  Narrated by Sheila in alternating timelines, THE SWORD SWALLOWER’S DAUGHTER spans the years 1968-1993.

THE SWORD SWALLOWER’S DAUGHTER is not yet published.