A Cold War Adventure
Date Published: 03-01-2026
Publisher: Bim Bom Books
When the first privately owned Soviet circus arrived in 1990 America as the Soviet Empire unraveled, its elite performers expected to build cultural bridges through spectacular shows. Instead, this prestigious troupe faced a perilous journey through Cold War America.
Circus director Yuri had to navigate treacherous waters where American mobsters, Soviet agents, and political forces circled like predators. Young aerialist Anton dreamed of becoming a clown against his family's wishes, while forbidden romances and unexpected connections bloomed between Soviet performers and Americans who saw past the ideological divide. As high-stakes conspiracies threatened to tear the circus family apart, they had to choose between the authoritarian chains of home and the uncertain promise of freedom.
As The Ringmaster reminds us, "The best Soviet stories are like vodka—they burn with suffering, intoxicate with conflict, keep you stewing in reflection, and yearning for your heart's desire." This genre-bending tale explores whether human connection can transcend ideology—and whether storytelling can bridge the divides that separate us.
1. Is there a message in your novel that you want
readers to grasp?
Circus Bim Bom
explores four themes that I believe speak directly to our divided world.
The first is
self-identity versus tribal identity. Bad actors manipulate tribal loyalties to
consolidate power—branding people as enemies, stoking fear, demanding
allegiance. The novel asks whether we can question our biases, free ourselves
from leaders who exploit identity for control, and consciously reshape how we
see ourselves and others. In an age of digital tribalism and manufactured
outrage, that question has never been more urgent.
The second is
healing and reconciliation. When tyrants fall, what happens to the ordinary
people who supported them—not the architects of evil, but the frightened, the
misinformed, those just trying to survive? The novel explores whether healing
is possible when wounds run generations deep.
The third is
the butterfly effect: small acts, seismic change. History isn’t shaped by great
men alone but by ordinary people and their daily lives—a chance encounter, a
moment of kindness, a choice to see someone as human rather than “other.” Those
ripple outward in ways we can’t predict. Jacob Birnbaum expected fifty students
at his 1964 protest—over a thousand came, sparking the Soviet Jewry movement.
Ordinary individuals have always been the catalysts of transformation.
And the fourth
is transformative storytelling as the engine of change. As Joshua Horkheimer
teaches during a pivotal Passover Seder, stories speak to where our emotions
reside, where our wounds fester, and where our biases harden. While our
rational minds erect barriers of fear and mistrust, stories burrow beneath
those defenses. From Bim and Bom’s political satire in 1918 to Anton’s clown
dreams, performance becomes a space for truth-telling when truth is dangerous
everywhere else.
The book poses
a central question: Can human connection transcend the barriers that divide
us—ideology, language, culture? I want readers to carry that question into
their lives. And I want them to have fun doing it. Entertainment and meaning
aren’t mutually exclusive.
2. Is there anything you find particularly
challenging in your writing?
The biggest
challenge was balancing world-building with storytelling. I had over thirty
years of research—declassified State Department documents, newspaper archives,
transcribed interviews—and the temptation to dump it all onto the page was
enormous. But information dumping kills narrative momentum.
I solved this
by making the world-building part of the narrative itself. The Ringmaster
breaks the fourth wall to deliver historical context with wit and commentary,
so the research feels like entertainment rather than a lecture. I also used
guest narrators—characters who step forward to share perspectives the
Ringmaster can’t access—which let me weave in geopolitical complexity through
dialogue and personal experience rather than exposition.
The other
challenge was infusing the story with authentic emotion triggers that readers
could experience viscerally. I learned to use inner dialogue—letting readers
hear what characters think but don’t say—and the power of “the unsaid.”
Sometimes what a character withholds hits harder than what they reveal. Getting
into the heads of Las Vegas mobsters, KGB officials, traumatized animal
trainers, and Soviet clowns—people I’d never met—required me to inhabit their
emotional landscapes, not just their circumstances.
3. How many books have you written and which is your
favorite?
Circus Bim Bom:
A Cold War Adventure is my debut novel—it’s the first of a duology. The second
book, Circus Bim Bom: The Great Escape, is completed and due late 2026.
My favorite?
That’s like asking which child you love more. Book One holds a special place
because it’s where I found The Ringmaster’s voice—that teal-top-hatted narrator
who gave me permission to write the story I’d been carrying for over thirty
years. But Book Two is where the characters face life-altering choices
involving self-identity, authenticity, and freedom—and the stakes of those
choices will break your heart. I think readers who finish Book One will
understand why this story had to be told in two parts.
4. If you had the chance to cast your main character
from Hollywood today, who would you pick and why?
Sacha Baron
Cohen as The Ringmaster—without question.
In the novel,
The Ringmaster introduces Sacha Baron Cohel as a guest narrator—and I won’t say
much more to avoid spoilers, but the way he arrives in the story practically
demands Cohen’s ability to shift between absurdist comedy and genuine menace.
Cohen has that rare quality of being simultaneously hilarious and unsettling,
which is exactly the tonal range the Ringmaster operates in. He’s a provocateur
who uses performance to reveal uncomfortable truths—whether as Borat or in
dramatic roles like The Spy. That’s the Ringmaster’s entire philosophy: “Don’t
let truth ruin great story.”
For Yuri, the
beleaguered circus director carrying 120 lives on his conscience, I’d want
someone who can convey quiet authority crumbling under impossible pressure. For
Anton, the young aerialist who dreams of becoming a clown against his father’s
wishes—you need someone who embodies that tension between duty and desire, with
physical grace and comedic instinct.
5. When did you begin writing?
I’ve been a
storyteller since college. At Tufts University in the late ’70s, I’d spin
fantastic yarns for friends in those smoke-filled rooms—all made up—sounding
plausible at first, then going off the deep end. How far could I go before
someone said, “That’s one of Cliff’s BS stories, isn’t it?”
That compulsion
led me to entertainment law, where I represented multi-platinum artists like
Usher and Lisa “Left Eye” Lopes. But something was missing.
Then in 1991,
Bobby Liberman walked into my Atlanta law firm. He’d been the American road
manager for a privately owned Soviet circus that toured the U.S. in 1990—a
hundred and twenty performers, crew, and families from the crumbling Soviet
empire. His account was the sort of fantastical story I would have made up,
except it was true.
I started
collecting everything. Over three decades, I purged my belongings many
times—but never parted with the banker’s boxes of circus materials. My late
friend David Rams kept badgering me to write it. When the pandemic arrived and
I had no more excuses, I finally did.
6. How long did it take to complete your first book?
The research
took thirty years. The writing took six. The obsession is ongoing.
I learned Bobby
Liberman’s story in 1991 and started collecting materials immediately—newspaper
clippings, legal documents, performance programs, transcribed interviews. In
2010, I recruited Emory Law students who compiled a fifty-four-page research
packet. But I didn’t start writing the novel until the pandemic in 2020.
From first
draft to publication was about six years, which included a full year of
intensive revisions. I completed one entire editing pass after reading Donald
Maass’s The Emotional Craft of Fiction, layering in emotional beats I’d
originally rushed past. The research informed every revision—I kept finding new
details, new connections, new questions. Even now, with the book complete, I
continue to stumble across things I hadn’t encountered before.
7. Did you have an author who inspired you to become
a writer?
Kurt Vonnegut
and Donald Maass, for very different reasons.
I don’t think I
write like Vonnegut, but I tapped into his voice and sense of humor to find
mine. His willingness to blend satire with genuine pathos, to be simultaneously
playful and profound—that gave me permission to write The Ringmaster the way I
did. Vonnegut showed me that you could make readers laugh and then, in the same
breath, break their hearts. That’s exactly the tonal range Circus Bim Bom
operates in. Without his example, I might have played it straight and lost the
soul of the story.
Maass
influenced my craft directly. His books Writing the Breakout Novel and The
Emotional Craft of Fiction became my guidebooks. Maass taught me to find the
emotional core of every scene—to ask what each character feels but doesn’t say,
to layer in the micro-tensions that keep readers turning pages. I completed an
entire manuscript revision after reading The Emotional Craft of Fiction, and
the book was transformed.
8. What is your favorite part of the writing process?
Editing and
revising—that’s where the magic happens.
Most of my
creativity occurs while walking in the woods with London, my Goldendoodle, or
gathering my thoughts while still in bed. But when I sit down to revise, I tap
into my visual and emotional senses, with my humor always lingering in the
background. I read each chapter aloud to immerse myself in the scene. I listen
for the rhythm of the language, feel whether the emotional beats land, and ask
whether the reader can see what I see.
Some writers
dread editing. I find it deeply satisfying. The first draft is about getting
the story down. The revision is about making it sing.
9. Describe your latest book in 4 words.
The Ringmaster
would insist I answer in his words: “The best Soviet stories are like
vodka—they BURN with suffering, INTOXICATE with conflict, keep you STEWING in
reflection, and leave you YEARNING for your heart’s desire.”
Four words?
Suffering. Conflict. Reflection. Yearning.
10. Can you share a little about your current work or
what is in the future for your writing?
I’m editing and
revising the second book, Circus Bim Bom: The Great Escape, which arrives late
2026. Book One ends at a critical turning point—I won’t spoil it, but readers
will be eagerly turning pages for more, and there aren’t any.
The Great
Escape is where the characters face life-altering choices involving
self-identity, authenticity, and freedom. The stakes rise, the choices become
harder, the bad guys grow tougher, and the central question—can human
connection transcend the barriers that divide us?—is put to the ultimate test.
Characters have to decide who they really are and whether they’re willing to
risk everything to become that person.
Meanwhile, I’m
expanding the companion website at bimbombookclub.com and building the
Historians’ Room, where readers can debate where history ends and imagination
begins. And if readers demand it, there’s certainly more story to tell—I
imagine fast-forwarding to around 2000, when Russia becomes a kleptocracy and
mafia state. The young characters would be in their late twenties by then, and
the circumstances of their lives would provide extraordinary drama.
About the Author
Cliff Lovette is a father, storyteller, and dog lover living in Sandy Springs, Georgia. For over 40 years, he practiced entertainment law, serving as Senior Vice President at LaFace Records and representing artists including Usher and Lisa "Left Eye" Lopes. His passion for bridging historical divides led him to co-produce a groundbreaking reconciliation event between descendants of Buffalo Soldiers and Lakota Native Americans. In 1990, when Bobby Liberman—road manager for the first privately owned Soviet circus touring America—became his client, Cliff discovered the true story that inspired this debut duology.
TikTok: @ringmaster606
YouTube: @TheRingmaster-n7y
Author's Edition
The Author's Edition comes with:
• Signed bookplate
• Digital circus poster
• Charter Bim Bom Book Club Membership
• Exclusive access to "Rabbit Hole" chapters
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