The Trick

Sweeping between Prague during World War II and modern-day Los Angeles, The Trick is a lyrical, uplifting, and funny story that will tug at all of your heartstrings” (Armando Lucas Correa, bestselling author of The German Girl) that follows a young boy seeking out a cynical, old magician in the hopes that his spells might keep his family together.

In 1934, a rabbi’s son in Prague joins a travelling circus, becomes a magician, and rises to fame under the stage name the Great Zabbatini, just as Europe descends into World War II. When Zabbatini is discovered to be a Jew, his battered trunk full of magic tricks becomes his only hope for survival.

Seventy years later in Los Angeles, ten-year-old Max finds a scratched-up LP that captured Zabbatini performing his greatest illusions. But the track in which Zabbatini performs the spell of eternal love-the spell Max believes will keep his parents from getting divorced-is damaged beyond repair. Desperate for a solution, Max seeks out the now elderly, cynical magician and begs him for help.

With gentle wisdom and heartbreaking humor, this is an inventive, deeply moving story about a young boy who needs a miracle, and a disillusioned old man who needs redemption.

About the author

Emanuel Bergmann was born in Germany and is a journalist and translator. He has been living in Los Angeles since 1990. His first novel The Trick, was an international bestseller.

(from publisher)

Librarian’s comments

Mosche joins the circus and as an illusionist performs tricks to entertain people in Hitler’s Germany. Max the young boy in today’s LA is looking for the Great Zabbatini to ask him to perform the magic of the eternal love for his divorcing parents. Both poignant and sometime humorous the novel is about the magic and miracle of love in our everyday lives.