Disappearing Act - Tapa dura

Until she was crippled by an accident in the ring, Little Wing was a child circus star. Now 19, she lives alone at the top of a tower block slated for demolition.
When she receives a mysterious package that contains a memoir written by Helena, the mother who she never knew, Wing is absorbed into her mother's bizarre and ultimately tragic story - she learns of the love affair between her mother and Constantin, a contemporary alchemist. But the more secrets she uncovers, the more precarious her situation becomes. As Wing reads, she finds that, like her mother, she too will have to choose between fact and fiction.