THE MAGICIAN

Colm Tóibíns magnificent new novel opens in a provincial German city at the turn of the twentieth century, where the boy, Thomas Ma nn, grows up with a conservative father, bound by propriety, and a Brazilian mother, alluring and unpredictable. Young Mann hides hi s artistic aspirations from his father and his homosexual desires from everyone. He is infatuated with one of the richest, most cult ured 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 ...[Read more]