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The Illusionist
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The Illusionist
Author(s): Dinitia Smith
When charming magician Dean Lily shows up in a decaying small town, he wins the hearts of the women of the town—but what they don't know is that Dean has more secrets and tricks than a simple sleight of hand.
The Illusionist is the sensuous and haunting tale of Dean Lily, an amateur magician whose arrival in Sparta, New York, upsets the landscape of this small town on the wane. Dean, a master of the sleight of hand, is also a master of seduction and charm—which becomes apparent as he woos and wins the hearts of more than one of Sparta's female citizens.
But the enigmatic newcomer has more to hide than the tricks of his trade—his mysterious identity as a transgendered person, and his closely guarded privacy arouse suspicion and jealousy—and while he cures Sparta of its midwinter ennui, he also unleashes a destructive force that rocks the foundations of this town to its core. Inspired in part by a true story, The Illusionist is a fiercely erotic novel that thwarts conventions of gender and love.
Review(s):
Chicago Tribune Beautifully written. With this haunting book, Smith tells a wonderful tale and raises provocative questions.
Stephen King Mesmerizing, erotic suspense.
Alan Cheuse All Things Considered A powerful novel about sexual desire and social disorder.
Edward Hower The New York Times Book Review A skillfully written novel. And its greatest strength is the sensitivity with which Smith explores the complexities of love.
Detour magazine Smoke-and-mirrors prose that would dazzle Houdini...Smith has written a truly chilling winter's tale.
Carolyn See The Washington Post Dinitia Smith has taken this "true" story and given its characters introspection and sad dignity.
Carole Goldberg The Hartford Courant [Smith] nails the fading ambience of a town that has lost its reason for being. And she shows poignantly why...women will seek and sustain the illusion of love.
Maureen Corrigan NPR Fresh Air [A] quicksilver novel in which nothing, not even sexual identity, is unwavering...Smith has stripped away an even greater illusion: that human sexuality is straightforward and fathomable, normative and neat.
Rosellen Brown The Illusionist is a terrifying story of the ways good people can follow their most generous instincts straight into tragedy. Dinitia Smith's novel makes the bizarre plausible while it heightens the ordinary. I was caught in its web, beguiled from first page to last.
Larry Kramer A haunting, heartbreaking, utterly unforgettable novel. What an overwhelming accomplishment of the imagination!
ISBN: 9780684848198
Author(s): Dinitia Smith
When charming magician Dean Lily shows up in a decaying small town, he wins the hearts of the women of the town—but what they don't know is that Dean has more secrets and tricks than a simple sleight of hand.
The Illusionist is the sensuous and haunting tale of Dean Lily, an amateur magician whose arrival in Sparta, New York, upsets the landscape of this small town on the wane. Dean, a master of the sleight of hand, is also a master of seduction and charm—which becomes apparent as he woos and wins the hearts of more than one of Sparta's female citizens.
But the enigmatic newcomer has more to hide than the tricks of his trade—his mysterious identity as a transgendered person, and his closely guarded privacy arouse suspicion and jealousy—and while he cures Sparta of its midwinter ennui, he also unleashes a destructive force that rocks the foundations of this town to its core. Inspired in part by a true story, The Illusionist is a fiercely erotic novel that thwarts conventions of gender and love.
Review(s):
Chicago Tribune Beautifully written. With this haunting book, Smith tells a wonderful tale and raises provocative questions.
Stephen King Mesmerizing, erotic suspense.
Alan Cheuse All Things Considered A powerful novel about sexual desire and social disorder.
Edward Hower The New York Times Book Review A skillfully written novel. And its greatest strength is the sensitivity with which Smith explores the complexities of love.
Detour magazine Smoke-and-mirrors prose that would dazzle Houdini...Smith has written a truly chilling winter's tale.
Carolyn See The Washington Post Dinitia Smith has taken this "true" story and given its characters introspection and sad dignity.
Carole Goldberg The Hartford Courant [Smith] nails the fading ambience of a town that has lost its reason for being. And she shows poignantly why...women will seek and sustain the illusion of love.
Maureen Corrigan NPR Fresh Air [A] quicksilver novel in which nothing, not even sexual identity, is unwavering...Smith has stripped away an even greater illusion: that human sexuality is straightforward and fathomable, normative and neat.
Rosellen Brown The Illusionist is a terrifying story of the ways good people can follow their most generous instincts straight into tragedy. Dinitia Smith's novel makes the bizarre plausible while it heightens the ordinary. I was caught in its web, beguiled from first page to last.
Larry Kramer A haunting, heartbreaking, utterly unforgettable novel. What an overwhelming accomplishment of the imagination!
ISBN: 9780684848198