by Christopher Priest (Author)
Two 19th century stage illusionists, the aristocratic Rupert Angier and the working-class Alfred Borden, engage in a bitter and deadly feud; the effects are still being felt by their respective families a hundred years later.
Working in the gaslight-and-velvet world of Victorian music halls, they prowl edgily in the background of each other's shadowy life, driven to the extremes by a deadly combination of obsessive secrecy and insatiable curiosity.
At the heart of the row is an amazing illusion they both perform during their stage acts. The secret of the magic is simple, and the reader is in on it almost from the start, but to the antagonists the real mystery lies deeper. Both have something more to hide than the mere workings of a trick.
Format: Paperback
Pages: 384
Publisher: Gollancz
Published: 10 Feb 2011
ISBN 10: 0575099410
ISBN 13: 9780575099418
Book Overview: 'A brilliantly constructed entertainment, with a plot as simple and intricate as a nest of Chinese boxes...a dizzying magic show of a novel' WASHINGTON POST