The Magician
By: Colm Tóibín
4.02
Format: 498 pages, Hardcover
Colm Tóibín’s new novel opens in a provincial German city at the turn of the twentieth century, whe…
Want to Read $ 14.99"...it is a grubby business writing novels. Composers can think about God and the ineffable. We have to imagine the buttons on a coat. [Thomas Mann, to Alma Mahler Werfel]"-Colm Tóibín, The Magician
"...it is a grubby business writing novels. Composers can think about God and the ineffable. We have to imagine the buttons on a coat. [Thomas Mann, to Alma Mahler Werfel]"-Colm Tóibín, The Magician
"The Nazis, he realized, were not like the poets of the Munich Revolution. They were street fighters who had taken power without losing their sway over the streets. They managed to be both government and opposition. They thrived on the idea of enemies, including enemies within. They did not fear bad publicity—rather, they actually wanted the worst of their actions to become widely known, all the better to make everyone, even those loyal to them, afraid."-Colm Tóibín, The Magician
"The Nazis, he realized, were not like the poets of the Munich Revolution. They were street fighters who had taken power without losing their sway over the streets. They managed to be both government and opposition. They thrived on the idea of enemies, including enemies within. They did not fear bad publicity—rather, they actually wanted the worst of their actions to become widely known, all the better to make everyone, even those loyal to them, afraid."-Colm Tóibín, The Magician
If you liked the historical plot in The Magician by Colm Tóibín , here is a list of 14 books like this:
1. Buddenbrooks: The Decline of a Family
By: Thomas Mann , John E. Woods , T.J. Reed
3.69
Format: None pages, Hardcover
Buddenbrooks, first published in Germany in 1901, when Mann was only twenty-six, has become a class… read more
Want to ReadSimilar categories in Thomas Mann's Buddenbrooks: The Decline of a Family book and Colm Tóibín's The Magician
- literature
- germany
- fiction
- historical fiction
2. The Glass Canoe
By: David Ireland
4.00
Format: 205 pages,
"The Southern Cross is a pub, an old, battered and experienced place, somewhere in the centre of Sy… read more
Want to ReadSimilar categories in David Ireland's The Glass Canoe book and Colm Tóibín's The Magician
- fiction
3. The Man in the Wooden Hat (Old Filth, #2)
By: Jane Gardam
4.10
Format: 233 pages, Paperback
The New York Times called Sir Edward Feathers one of the most memorable characters in modern litera… read more
Want to Read $ 2.99Similar categories in Jane Gardam's The Man in the Wooden Hat (Old Filth, #2) book and Colm Tóibín's The Magician
- literary fiction
- literature
- historical
- fiction
- historical fiction
4. Trust
By: Hernan Diaz
3.83
Format: 402 pages, Hardcover
10 hours, 21 minutes From an award-winning chronicler of our nation's history and its legends co… read more
Want to Read $ 11.99Similar categories in Hernan Diaz's Trust book and Colm Tóibín's The Magician
- literary fiction
- historical
- fiction
- historical fiction
- audiobook
"Where there's a ventriloquist, there's a dummy."-Hernan Diaz, Trust
"Chaos is a vortex that spins faster with each thing it swallows."-Hernan Diaz, Trust
"Silence between 2 is always shared. But 1 of the 2 owns it and shares it with the other."-Hernan Diaz, Trust
"I’ve come to think one is truly married only when one is more committed to one’s vows than the person they refer to."-Hernan Diaz, Trust
5. Small Things Like These
By: Claire Keegan
4.18
Format: 128 pages, Hardcover
It is 1985 in a small Irish town. During the weeks leading up to Christmas, Bill Furlong, a coal me… read more
Want to Read $ 9.00Similar categories in Claire Keegan's Small Things Like These book and Colm Tóibín's The Magician
- literary fiction
- historical
- fiction
- historical fiction
- ireland
- irish literature
- audiobook
"Always, Christmas brought out the best and the worst in people."-Claire Keegan, Small Things Like These
"for people were bound, he knew, to reveal not only themselves, but what they knew, in conversation"-Claire Keegan, Small Things Like These
"And then the nights came on and the frosts took hold again, and blades of cold slid under doors and cut the knees off those who still knelt to say the rosary."-Claire Keegan, Small Things Like These
"When he reached the yard gate and found the padlock seized with frost, he felt the strain of being alive and wished he had stayed in bed, but he made himself carry on and crossed to a neighbour’s hou…"-Claire Keegan, Small Things Like These
6. Prophet Song
By: Paul Lynch
4.10
Format: 259 pages, Kindle Edition
A fearless portrait of a society on the brink as a mother faces a terrible choice, from an internat… read more
Want to Read $ 9.10Similar categories in Paul Lynch's Prophet Song book and Colm Tóibín's The Magician
- literary fiction
- literature
- fiction
- ireland
- irish literature
- audiobook
"people are entitled to some small moment of peace."-Paul Lynch, Prophet Song
"the child absorbing the mother’s trauma and storing it in his body for later use,"-Paul Lynch, Prophet Song
"... time is at once addition and subtraction, time adds one day to the next and always takes away from what's left..."-Paul Lynch, Prophet Song
"...knowing how it is so that all boys grow up and pull away from home to unmake the world in the guise of making it, nature decrees it so."-Paul Lynch, Prophet Song
7. Caledonian Road
By: Andrew O'Hagan
3.96
Format: 608 pages, Hardcover
A biting portrait of British class, politics, and money told through five interconnected families a… read more
Want to Read $ 16.90Similar categories in Andrew O'Hagan's Caledonian Road book and Colm Tóibín's The Magician
- literature
- literary fiction
- fiction
- audiobook
8. Old God's Time
By: Sebastian Barry
3.85
Format: 261 pages, Hardcover
From the two-time Booker Prize finalist author, a dazzlingly written novel exploring love, memory, … read more
Want to Read $ 12.99Similar categories in Sebastian Barry's Old God's Time book and Colm Tóibín's The Magician
- literary fiction
- fiction
- ireland
- irish literature
- audiobook
"Per ell aquest era el sentit de la jubilació, de l'existència: estar-de immòbil, feliç i inútil"-Sebastian Barry, Old God's Time
"Per ell aquest era el sentit de la jubilació, de l'existència: estar-se immòbil, feliç i inútil"-Sebastian Barry, Old God's Time
"No one minds life as long as they are not trying to leave it. Nor death, as long as they are not dying."-Sebastian Barry, Old God's Time
9. The Wren, the Wren
By: Anne Enright
3.55
Format: 278 pages, Hardcover
An incandescent novel about the inheritance of trauma, wonder, and love across three generations of… read more
Want to Read $ 9.66Similar categories in Anne Enright's The Wren, the Wren book and Colm Tóibín's The Magician
- literary fiction
- fiction
- ireland
- irish literature
- audiobook
"It's not that I think about him constantly, he is my way of thinking. His mind is my compass, his eyes my only mirror."-Anne Enright, The Wren, the Wren
"We don’t walk down the same street as the person walking beside us. All we can do is tell the other person what we see. We can point at things and try to name them. If we do this well, our friend can…"-Anne Enright, The Wren, the Wren
"We don't walk down the same street as the person walking beside us. All we can do is tell the other person what we see. We can point at things and try to name them. If we do this well, our friend can…"-Anne Enright, The Wren, the Wren
10. Kairos
By: Jenny Erpenbeck
3.46
Format: 379 pages, Hardcover
Die neunzehnjährige Katharina und Hans, ein verheirateter Mann Mitte fünfzig, begegnen sich Ende de… read more
Want to Read $ 9.99Similar categories in Jenny Erpenbeck's Kairos book and Colm Tóibín's The Magician
- literary fiction
- literature
- historical
- germany
- fiction
- historical fiction
"She would like a shallow life, swift and shallow, till some day she can start again. Get through her time fast until then. And when will that be? Then."-Jenny Erpenbeck, Kairos
11. James
By: Percival Everett
4.54
Format: 303 pages, Hardcover
A brilliant, action-packed reimagining of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn , both harrowing and f… read more
Want to Read $ 14.99Similar categories in Percival Everett's James book and Colm Tóibín's The Magician
- literary fiction
- historical
- fiction
- historical fiction
- audiobook
12. The Magician
By: Colm Tóibín
4.02
Format: 498 pages, Hardcover
Colm Tóibín’s new novel opens in a provincial German city at the turn of the twentieth century, whe… read more
Want to Read $ 14.99Similar categories in Colm Tóibín's The Magician book and Colm Tóibín's The Magician
- literary fiction
- lgbt
- literature
- historical
- germany
- fiction
- historical fiction
- ireland
- irish literature
- audiobook
"...it is a grubby business writing novels. Composers can think about God and the ineffable. We have to imagine the buttons on a coat. [Thomas Mann, to Alma Mahler Werfel]"-Colm Tóibín, The Magician
"The Nazis, he realized, were not like the poets of the Munich Revolution. They were street fighters who had taken power without losing their sway over the streets. They managed to be both government …"-Colm Tóibín, The Magician
"He [Thomas Mann] remembered this Beethoven quartet [his op. 132] as being sad, sometimes mournful. What was surprising now was that, while the undertone was melancholy, the way the instruments stoppe…"-Colm Tóibín, The Magician
13. The House of Doors
By: Tan Twan Eng
4.14
Format: 320 pages, Hardcover
A spellbinding novel about love and betrayal, colonialism and revolution, storytelling and redempti… read more
Want to Read $ 9.99Similar categories in Tan Twan Eng's The House of Doors book and Colm Tóibín's The Magician
- literary fiction
- lgbt
- historical
- fiction
- historical fiction
- audiobook
"Money's the sixth sense. If you don't have it, you can't make … the most of the other five."-Tan Twan Eng, The House of Doors
"I feel that when I travel I can change myself a little, and I return from a journey not quite the same self I was."-Tan Twan Eng, The House of Doors
"That night, side by side, we drifted among the galaxies of sea-stars, while far, far above us the asterisks of light marked out the footnotes on the page of eternity."-Tan Twan Eng, The House of Doors
"All of us will be forgotten eventually. Like a wave on the ocean, leaving no trace that it had once existed.' He shook his head. 'We will be remembered through our stories."-Tan Twan Eng, The House of Doors
14. Lessons
By: Ian McEwan
4.00
Format: 448 pages, Hardcover
When the world is still counting the cost of the Second World War and the Iron Curtain has closed, … read more
Want to Read $ 8.99Similar categories in Ian McEwan's Lessons book and Colm Tóibín's The Magician
- literary fiction
- literature
- historical
- fiction
- historical fiction
- audiobook
"Books are difficult to tidy. Hard to chuck out. They resist."-Ian McEwan, Lessons
"Only the backward look, the well-researched history could tell peaks and troughs from portals."-Ian McEwan, Lessons
"What must it be, to burst out of deep infant sleep into the shocking singular fact of existence."-Ian McEwan, Lessons
"The years slid over old deaths like a heavy lid. Nearly everything that happens to you in life you forget. Should have kept a journal."-Ian McEwan, Lessons
15. North Woods
By: Daniel Mason
4.15
Format: 372 pages, Hardcover
A sweeping novel about a single house in the woods of New England, told through the lives of those … read more
Want to Read $ 13.99Similar categories in Daniel Mason's North Woods book and Colm Tóibín's The Magician
- literary fiction
- historical
- fiction
- historical fiction
- audiobook
16. The Bee Sting
By: Paul Murray
3.96
Format: 656 pages, Hardcover
From the author of Skippy Dies comes Paul Murray's The Bee Sting, an irresistibly funny, wise, and … read more
Want to Read $ 12.99Similar categories in Paul Murray's The Bee Sting book and Colm Tóibín's The Magician
- literary fiction
- literature
- fiction
- ireland
- irish literature
- audiobook
"It is for love. You are doing this for love."-Paul Murray, The Bee Sting
"We all have problems. But often instead of accepting the truth about ourselves, we cover it up. We try to make ourselves the way we think we’re expected to be."-Paul Murray, The Bee Sting
"Maybe every era has an atrocity woven into its fabric. Maybe every society is complicit in terrible things and only afterwards gets around to pretending they didn’t know. When the kids ask, tell them…"-Paul Murray, The Bee Sting
"Maybe that’s how it will go – instead of one definitive cataclysm, a series of ‘anomalies’, each time lasting longer, with the stretches of what you call normal life becoming further and further apar…"-Paul Murray, The Bee Sting
17. Table for Two
By: Amor Towles
4.26
Format: 464 pages, Hardcover
From the bestselling author of The Lincoln Highway, A Gentleman in Moscow, and Rules of Civility, a… read more
Want to Read $ 13.99Similar categories in Amor Towles's Table for Two book and Colm Tóibín's The Magician
- literary fiction
- historical
- fiction
- historical fiction
- audiobook
"And though she couldn’t remember the exact reference and whether it was from mythology or the Bible, she knew instinctively as they approached the pier’s limit she mustn’t look back."-Amor Towles, Table for Two
"It is a funny aspect of life, thought Charlie, how a group of grown people can convince themselves to do something that none of them really want to do. They start by talking an idea into existence. O…"-Amor Towles, Table for Two
18. The Marriage Portrait
By: Maggie O'Farrell
4.01
Format: 355 pages, Hardcover
An alternative cover edition for this ISBN can be found here. The author of award-winning Hamnet… read more
Want to Read $ 12.99Similar categories in Maggie O'Farrell's The Marriage Portrait book and Colm Tóibín's The Magician
- literary fiction
- historical
- fiction
- historical fiction
- audiobook
"May I keep this?"-Maggie O'Farrell, The Marriage Portrait
"Was there no hope? the tigress seemed to be asking her. Will I always remain here? Will I never return home?"-Maggie O'Farrell, The Marriage Portrait
"The animal was orange, burnished gold, fire made flesh; she was power and anger, she was vicious and exquisite;"-Maggie O'Farrell, The Marriage Portrait
"Is it possible for a woman to be so unsettled in spirit that a child will have no hope of taking root within her?"-Maggie O'Farrell, The Marriage Portrait
19. The Fraud
By: Zadie Smith
3.30
Format: 464 pages, Hardcover
The extraordinary first historical novel from bestselling author of White Teeth Zadie Smith It i… read more
Want to Read $ 12.99Similar categories in Zadie Smith's The Fraud book and Colm Tóibín's The Magician
- literary fiction
- historical
- fiction
- historical fiction
- audiobook
"Eliza had long understood her cousin to be beyond the reach of editorial intervention."-Zadie Smith, The Fraud
"What possesses people? Unhappiness, always. Happiness is otherwise occupied. It has an object on which to focus. It has daisies, it has snowdrifts. Unhappiness opens up the void, which then requires …"-Zadie Smith, The Fraud
"I know this country well. Well enough to understand that justice takes time, and that the freedoms of a minority are rarely self-evident to the majority. What is perfectly selfevident to God is – unf…"-Zadie Smith, The Fraud
"God preserve me from novel-writing, thought Mrs Touchet. God preserve me from that tragic indulgence, that useless vanity, that blindness! In a cold dormitory, two hundred miles away, three heartbrok…"-Zadie Smith, The Fraud
20. Shrines of Gaiety
By: Kate Atkinson
3.85
Format: 439 pages, Hardcover
London 1926. Roaring Twenties. Corruption. Seduction. Debts due. In a country still recovering … read more
Want to Read $ 12.99Similar categories in Kate Atkinson's Shrines of Gaiety book and Colm Tóibín's The Magician
- literary fiction
- historical
- fiction
- historical fiction
- audiobook
"The library had not been a career choice. After all, who would choose to be a librarian?"-Kate Atkinson, Shrines of Gaiety
"His head was always in the clouds. 'I'm writing a novel,' he told her. As if that was something to crow about. As if there weren't enough novels in the world already."-Kate Atkinson, Shrines of Gaiety
21. The Promise
By: Damon Galgut
3.86
Format: 293 pages, Hardcover
The Promise , winner of the 2021 Booker Prize, charts the crash and burn of a white South African f… read more
Want to Read $ 9.99Similar categories in Damon Galgut's The Promise book and Colm Tóibín's The Magician
- literary fiction
- literature
- historical
- fiction
- historical fiction
"A smile quickly cut his face and then healed up."-Damon Galgut, The Promise
"Give him a taboo and he feels the need to break it."-Damon Galgut, The Promise
"Children still, on the verge of not being children any more."-Damon Galgut, The Promise
"Her own voice sounds echoey, as if somebody else is speaking."-Damon Galgut, The Promise
