Good story, and likely to be enjoyed by historical fiction fans. This is a nice showcase of the author's talent. It's quite engaging and is surprising interesting given it's about an author. Recommended.

I really appreciate the ARC for review!!

It took me a long second to realize that this book is about "the" Thomas Mann, but not some random Thomas Mann. After passing that initial stage of "what was I thinking?". I dove right in! Even though it is a historical fiction, this book gives us pretty good idea about Thomas Mann's life, his choices, his travels (or exile), and his dilemmas. Starting with his adolescent days, the story takes us through Mann's sexual awakening, then his marriage and fatherhood while highlighting when and how his most renowned works came to life.

I don't know how it felt for him but having the family Mann had must be stimulating. Everyone had strong will, varying world view, and enough knowledge and awareness to form an opinion on numerous subjects. His brother, his wife, his children - they all shaped his life by opening his eyes and making him question his ideas and ideals. I would love to share a table with this crew.

If you are interested in historical fiction, especially WWII storied based on real life and more about saving artistic world from fascism and Nazism, you will enjoy this book. It's almost like reading a biography but having that fictional touch to it makes it more appealing.

I think many readers will be thrilled to see a new title from Mr. Toibin. Not my own personal style, but I gave it a try as I loved Brooklyn.

Thanks to Netgalley and Scribner for the early ebook. This is a fascinating novel by one of my favorite writers. We follow Noble Prize winning author Thomas Mann from his young life, where he has artistic aspirations he doesn’t know how to talk about and a strong attraction to men that he can barely admit to himself. He follows the one, becoming one of Germany’s most famous writers and tries to ignore the other by marrying and having six children. And what a wife and children he has. These are some of the most amusing and complex characters the author has ever written. By turns amusing, adventurous and exasperating. Thomas by contrast is seen as the slightly befuddled author who spends his days either writing or reading, but his inner life is so full. One of the best things that Toibin does is show how this great writer wrote some of his best books. It’s an exciting excavation of one great writer of how another great writer works. All this and on top of it all are two world wars and a complicated exile in America and so much more. Extraordinary work.

Colm Toibin is simply one of the great novelists and essay writers of the last three decades. His novels THE BLACKWATER LIGHTSHIP, THE MASTER, BROOKLYN and THE TESTAMENT OF MARY are each thrilling fictional journeys that inspire the reader well into their nighttime dreams.

With THE MAGICIAN, Toibin again works his impeccable magic. A fictional imagining of the life of Nobel-winning German author Thomas Mann, this book is searing in its’ insight into the mind of an artist forced to flee the Nazis who will destroy much of the world including Germany itself.

Though Thomas Mann is a writer who demands his mornings alone to create his great body of work, he is also a man of flesh and blood. And desire. As Toibin did with Henry James in THE MASTER, he brings out the repressed and not so depressed desires of a gay artist who happened to have a lasting, beautiful marriage and multi-talented children.

This is the best book I have read all year. I recommend it highly and without reservation.

Thank you, Mr. Toibin, for another stellar work. Bravo.

Colm Toibin characteristically weaves together history, culture, and tradition in a literary exploration of time, consequence, and family. I loved this focus on Thomas Mann, a figure from literature who is fascinating and notable. The Magician is a wonderful introduction or return visit with a masterful literary voice.