PublishedPicador, August 2021 |
ISBN9781760984113 |
FormatSoftcover, 448 pages |
Dimensions23.2cm × 15.5cm × 3.3cm |
When the Great War breaks out in 1914 Thomas Mann, like so many of his fellow countrymen, is fired up with patriotism. He imagines the Germany of great literature and music, which had drawn him away from the stifling, conservative town of his childhood, might be a source of pride once again.
But his flawed vision will form the beginning of a dark and complex relationship with his homeland, and see the start of great conflict within his own brilliant and troubled family. Colm Tibn's epic novel is the story of a man of intense contradictions. Although Thomas Mann becomes famous and admired, his inner life is hesitant, fearful and secretive. His blindness to impending disaster in the Great War will force him to rethink his relationship with Germany as Hitler comes to power. He has six children with his clever and fascinating wife, Katia, while his own secret desires appear threaded through his writing. He and Katia deal with exile bravely, doing everything possible to keep the family safe, yet they also suffer the terrible ravages of suicide among Thomas's siblings, and their own children. In The Magician, Colm Tibn captures the profound personal conflict of a very public life, and through this life creates an intimate portrait of the twentieth century.
Bill is one of the founders of Boffins and has been involved in selecting the books we stock since our beginning in 1989. His favourite reading is history, with psychology, current affairs, and business books coming close behind. His hobbies are reading, food, reading, drinking, reading, and sleeping.
This magisterial novel traces the life of the Nobel Prize winning German author Thomas Mann, from his childhood and youth in the Hanseatic port of Lubeck, to the first stage of his creative brilliance living in Munich, through to exile during the Nazi period in Switzerland and then in the United States.
I felt like a privileged guest in the journey of the life of Mann and his family as I read this wonderful book. Many in his family, his wife Katia, his siblings and his children, were brilliant in their own right. The contest of ideas and values between them is fascinating, particularly in the context of the grand historical changes that beset Germany and the world from the late nineteenth to the middle of the twentieth century. Toibin is at his very best in this beautifully written story, brilliantly conjuring the atmospheres of the different times and places in which it is set, and giving context to the geneses of his wonderful novels. I won’t be surprised if this book takes out next year’s Booker Prize.
