In Conversation: On Battle for the Big Top & The Year of Dangerous Days

Nicholas Griffin is a journalist and author of four novels and works of nonfiction, including Ping Pong Diplomacy: The Secret History Behind the Game That Changed the World. His writing has appeared in The Times, The Financial Times, Foreign Policy, and other publications. The Year of Dangerous Days: Riots, Refugees, and Cocaine in Miami 1980 (37 Ink) is a rich chapter in the story of how the city came to be one of the world’s most popular vacation spots, with nearly 10 million tourists visiting annually. There’s an improbable cast of characters including Jimmy Carter, Fidel Castro, and Janet Reno. But there’s also Edna Buchanan, a Miami Herald reporter who breaks the story on the wrongful murder of a Black man and its shocking police cover-up, and Capt. Marshall Frank and Mayor Maurice Ferré, who watch the city fall apart with the case. As drug cartels flood the city with cocaine and infiltrate all levels of law enforcement and government, Miami explodes in one of the worst race riots in American history as more than 120,000 Cuban refugees land on its coast. A more vibrant city emerges, literally built on corruption and drug money – and this will have severe ramifications for the rest of the country. Kirkus called it an “engrossing peek-between-your-fingers history of an American city on the edge.”

Les Standiford is the author of several books, including Last Train to Paradise: Henry Flagler and the Spectacular Rise and Fall of the Railroad that Crossed an Ocean, Meet You in Hell: Andrew Carnegie, Henry Clay Frick, and the Bitter Partnership That Transformed America, and Bringing Adam Home: The Abduction That Changed America. He is also a professor of English and the founding director of the Creative Writing Program at Florida International University. In Battle for the Big Top: P.T. Barnum, James Bailey, John Ringling, and the Death-Defying Saga of the American Circus (PublicAffairs), Standiford brings to life a remarkable era when Bailey, Barnum, and Ringling vied for control of the profitable and influential American circus. Their rivalry ultimately resulted in the creation of an institution that would surpass all intentions – and hold a nation spellbound for 147 years. Battle for the Big Top is filled with details of their showmanship, business acumen, and personal charm. Karen Russell, author of Swamplandia!, called it “a mesmerizing, larger-than-life tale from brilliant storyteller Les Standiford – P.T. Barnum himself would tell you it’s well worth the price of admission. … a masterful work of nonfiction.”