The Illusionist

Zusatztext Larry Kramer A haunting! heartbreaking! utterly unforgettable novel. What an overwhelming accomplishment of the imagination! Informationen zum Autor Dinitia Smith is the author of two previous novels, Hard Rain and Remember This. She is an Emmy Award-winning filmmaker and has taught creative writing at Columbia University. She is now a national correspondent for culture at The New York Times and lives in New York City. Klappentext 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 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. Leseprobe Chapter 1 CHRISSIE I first saw him one wild October night at the Wooden Nickel bar high up on the headland overlooking the river on Old Route 27. In Sparta in late October the wind sweeps in off the river, it can make your eyes tear, it can make you weep. Across the river, the sky over the palisades was dense with cumulus clouds, thick and silvery and shot through with light, and the leaves in the trees sang and rustled and shook in the wind. Down below, the great river glided by, like a sheet of gleaming metal two miles wide. When I walked out of the cold into the Wooden Nickel that night, I spotted a young man I'd never seen before, sitting at a table in the big room adjoining the bar. A cone of golden light shone down on him from the ceiling, tiny specks of dust whirling about in it. He was surrounded by a small crowd and he was doing magic tricks -- pulling quarters from behind people's ears, making his playing cards seem to leap from deck to deck and then magically rearrange themselves into groups of blacks and reds and aces and hearts. And as he worked, his hands moved as quick as water. There was something about him that just struck you right away, that made your eyes rest upon him and made you puzzle. I know now that I wondered what he was, the question passed through my mind without being formed into words. I guess you always remember your first sight of someone who will become important in your life, even though you can't know it at the time. It stays a picture in your mind forever. He was small and thin. He wore a black cowboy hat perched on the back of his head, and an old deerskin jacket with a fringe on it, even though it was hot inside and the wood stove was going full blast. Yes, he was beautiful. He had high cheekbones, reddened with wind, big green eyes, slightly prominent, shining like globes in his head, as if he had just been running. His mouth was full, with well-shaped lips drawing to two points under his nose. He had a little bit of an overbite, and long white healthy teeth. His brown hair was short, but shaggy. And I noticed that he was wearing two flannel shirts, one on top of the other. Brian Perez was his victim. Brian was sitting opposite him, watching him intently through his long, curly, light blond hair the color of burnt ashes that hung over his face, his mouth set in a thin smirk. The atmosphere in the bar was thick with smoke, and you could smell the salty smell of wood burned over the generations, embedded in the walls of the place. Behind the dark wood-paneled bar, a mottled deer head hung, strands of tinsel dangling from its nose. Carl, the owner, liked to decorate. He made the place a home for us, ...

Product details

• Authors: Dinitia Smith
• Publisher: Scribner UK
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 15.03.1999
• EAN: 9780684848198
• ISBN: 978-0-684-84819-8
• Dimensions: 135 mm x 205 mm x 20 mm
• Subject: Fiction > Suspense