New York & Boston: Little Brown, (2016) dj. Hardcover first edition - In 1899, on a sweltering tobacco farm in Truevine, Virginia, the heart of the Jim Crow South, the Muse brothers, George and Willie, just 6 and 9 years old, worked the fields - until a white man offered them candy and stole them away to become circus freaks. For the next 28 years, their mother struggled to get them back. At the height of their fame, the brothers performed for royalty at Buckingham Palace and headlinedshows at New York's Madison Square Garden. But their success was based on the color of their skin and in the outrageous caricatures they were forced to assume: cannibals, sheep-headed freaks, even 'Ambassadors from Mars'. A story of cruelty and exploitation, of the seamy side of the circus and sideshows, but also of loyalty, determination and love. Illustrated with both color and black and white photographs. Extensive notes, index. 420 pp. Illustrated endpapers. ISBN: 978-0316337540.