The Illusionists
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1.0 • 1 Rating
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- $15.99
Publisher Description
From the bestselling author of the phenomenally successful The Kashmir Shawl
London 1885
As a turbulent and change-filled century draws to a close, there has never been a better time to alter your fortune. But for a beautiful young woman of limited means, Eliza’s choices appear to lie between the stifling domesticity of marriage or a downwards spiral to the streets – no matter how determined she is to forge her own path.
One night at a run-down theatre, she meets the charismatic Devil Wix – showman, master of illusion, fickle friend. Drawn into his circle, Eliza becomes the catalyst of change for his colleagues – a dwarf, an eccentric engineer, and an artist – as well as Devil himself. And as Eliza embarks on a dangerous adventure, she must decide which path to choose, and how far she should go when she holds all their lives in her hands.
Reviews
‘Love, seduction, magic and illusion collide as Rosie Thomas takes us on a spellbinding journey through an extremely shadowy world’ Daily Express
‘A brilliant Gothic mix of glitter and grime and so atmospheric you can almost see the pea-soupers’ Daily Mail
‘Always engaging: a beautifully written novel that will magic you away to the seedy streets of turn-of-the-century London’ Stylist
Praise for The Kashmir Shawl:
‘A superbly researched and vivid evocation of wartime Kashmir and Ladakh’ Daily Mail
‘A spellbinding tale. Beautifully written, honest and compassionate…a delight from start to finish’
Daily Express
‘An epic tale…A complicated entanglement of family secrets, love during wartime and dangerous liaisons. For fans of Maggie O’Farrell’
Red
‘A superbly written novel, marvellously descriptive and especially evocative of the war years . . . a gorgeous treat’ Choice
‘Thomas’ portrayal of a young wife struggling to cope with life in wartime Kashmir, her husband’s indifference to her and her attraction to a charismatic mountaineer is beautifully written, touching and believable’ The Daily Express
About the author
Rosie Thomas is the author of a number of celebrated novels, including the bestsellers The Kashmir Shawl, Sun at Midnight, Iris and Ruby and Constance. Once she was established as a writer and her children were grown, she discovered a love of travelling and mountaineering. She has climbed in the Alps and the Himalayas, competed in the Peking to Paris car rally, spent time on a tiny Bulgarian research station in Antarctica and travelled the silk road through Asia. She lives in London.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Set in Victorian England, Thomas's sprawling follow-up to The Kashmir Shawl combines several elements: a story of a theater company, a thriller, and, most successfully, a portrait of a woman trying to create an equal partnership with a man. Eliza Dunlop is working as an artists' model when her suitor, Jasper, takes her to the Palmyra Theater, where she meets Devil Wix and the dwarf Carlo Boldoni who are working as illusionists. Wix is ambitious: he wants to own the theater and devises a plan that requires Carlo, Jasper, Eliza, and automaton-maker Heinrich Bayer to work together to swindle the crooked theater owner Jacko Grady. As the theater progresses, the partnership frays; a nearby murder, a kidnapping, and a ghost from Wix's past add elements of horror and suspense. The heart of the book is Eliza's long, slow attempt to not only marry Devil but to live in parity with him. Since she has no models for the relationship she wants, Thomas shows Eliza working to invent a new kind of life; a creation as novel for her time as the mechanical illusions at the Palmyra.
