Hocus Pocus

A young magician travels across the world seeking fame and fortune all the while hiding a secret, in this “stirring” (The Boston Globe) novel based on the renowned, real-life Indian stage magicians performing in the United States in the 1800s.

Samuel Thomas, a man of uncertain parentage, is a young stage magician convinced that he is destined for greatness in a far-off land. Seeking honor and acclaim, he journeys across the globe—from India to London to the fog-shrouded streets of Boston in 1816, the infamous Year Without a Summer. In this season of unrelenting cold, Samuel arrives in a city alive with ambition, contradiction, and tension.

Enter Walter Mepham: proprietor of the New Boston Museum, which is on the brink of bankruptcy, Walter is desperate to find ways to keep it open—and Samuel is the ideal candidate to be the first live addition to the collection.

While the perfect solution to each other’s problems, the relationship between the two men quickly becomes complicated as Walter grows more and more obsessed with the young foreigner. As Samuel becomes subsumed within the museum and dependent on Walter, he must reckon with just how much he’s willing to give up to achieve success. Based on the real-life Indian stage magicians who captivated nineteenth-century American society, Hocus Pocus is a “spectacular” (Publishers Weekly, starred review) historical novel about art, ambition, and desire that captures the crackling energy and wonder of a bygone era through the eyes of a young performer.