The Life She Was Given by Ellen Marie Wiseman

From one of my favorite authors comes the story of Lily, a young woman who has never left her attic. She is kept in the attic by her mother who says that people would be afraid of Lily if they were to see her deformity, so she must stay hidden for her own protection. 

One evening, Lily sees, from her attic window, a traveling circus setting up in a field near her house. She marvels at this scene of which she has never been a part of but has seen in books and is shocked when, later that evening, her mother comes to the attic, takes Lily out of the attic and down to the field and sells Lily to the owner of the circus.

Beginning as a side show attraction, and treated quite badly by both the circus folk and the jeering circus attendees, Lily is at first surprised and saddened by the brutal turn that her life has taken, just another prison much like her attic, but she eventually makes friends, learns her way around and discovers a rare ability to work with animals, especially the many horses that are trained and part of the menagerie. Working with a boy named Cole and his 2 elephants, Lily soon becomes the big star attraction of the circus... until everything changes after the brutality of some of the circus people culminates in a cruel and terrible deed. 

(Please Note - this terrible scene does include an awful and heartbreaking depiction of animal cruelty that is quite hard to stomach, but is in fact historically accurate to some hideous circus events of the past and therefor should never be forgotten so as to never be repeated.)

Many decades later, a woman named Julia is home at her family estate (after many years away) that she has just inherited and discovers a hidden and locked attic bedroom in which she finds a stack of newspaper clippings about a depression era traveling circus. Not having a close relationship with her family, she is curious and starts to research these strange revelations.

Bouncing between Lily's and Julia's stories and era's, we finally discover their connection which had been hidden for so many years through so many family secrets.