{"product_id":"the-magician-9781476785080","title":"The Magician","description":"\u003cb\u003eFrom one of today's most brilliant and beloved novelists, a dazzling, epic family saga set across a half-century spanning \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003eWorld War I, the rise of Hitler, World War II, and the Cold War. \u003c\/b\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eColm Tóibín's magnificent new novel opens in a provincial German city at the turn of the twentieth century, where the boy, Thomas Mann, grows up with a conservative father, bound by propriety, and a Brazilian mother, alluring and unpredictable. Young Mann hides his artistic aspirations from his father and his homosexual desires from everyone. He is infatuated with one of the richest, most cultured Jewish families in Munich, and marries the daughter Katia. They have six children. On a holiday in Italy, he longs for a boy he sees on a beach and writes the story \u003ci\u003eDeath in Venice\u003c\/i\u003e. He is the most successful novelist of his time, winner of the Nobel Prize in literature, a public man whose private life remains secret. He is expected to lead the condemnation of Hitler, whom he underestimates. His oldest daughter and son, leaders of Bohemianism and of the anti-Nazi movement, share lovers. He flees Germany for Switzerland, France and, ultimately, America, living first in Princeton and then in Los Angeles. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e In a stunning marriage of research and imagination, Tóibín explores the heart and mind of a writer whose gift is unparalleled and whose life is driven by a need to belong and the anguish of illicit desire. \u003ci\u003eThe Magician\u003c\/i\u003e is an intimate, astonishingly complex portrait of Mann, his magnificent and complex wife Katia, and the times in which they lived--the first world war, the rise of Hitler, World War II, the Cold War, and exile. This is a man and a family fiercely engaged by the world, profoundly flawed, and unforgettable. As \u003ci\u003ePeople \u003c\/i\u003emagazine said about \u003ci\u003eThe Master\u003c\/i\u003e, \"It's a delicate, mysterious process, this act of creation, fraught with psychological tension, and Tóibín captures it beautifully.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eBinding Type:\u003c\/b\u003e Hardcover\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Scribner Book Company\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 09\/07\/2021\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN:\u003c\/b\u003e 9781476785080\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 512\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eReview Citations: \u003c\/strong\u003e\u003ci\u003eLibrary Journal Prepub Alert\u003c\/i\u003e 04\/01\/2021 pg. 40\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eBooklist\u003c\/i\u003e 06\/01\/2021 pg. 47\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eKirkus Reviews\u003c\/i\u003e 07\/01\/2021\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003ePublishers Weekly\u003c\/i\u003e 07\/12\/2021\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Colm Toibin","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":40721630331061,"sku":"9781476785080","price":23.8,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0473\/0804\/6492\/products\/img_60c32516-316d-4b8a-8e9d-90f2319795e1.jpg?v=1628607286","url":"https:\/\/pastforward.org\/products\/the-magician-9781476785080","provider":"Past Forward","version":"1.0","type":"link"}