I didn't know much about Thomas Mann's life before reading this novel on the subject. Not a very likeable man! Interesting to read about his relationship with his wife and family and their acceptance of his homosexuality at a time when this was illegal. The most readable section was the World War II part.

The Magician begins in Lubeck Germany in 1891 and is a very well paced non fiction novel which spans the childhood of writer Mr. Thomas Mann, the rise and fall of the Nazis and subsequently Mr. Manns later years. My favourite character of the many documented within the book was of course the formidable daughter Erika who was a most entertaining person to read about. The contrast between the affectionate dialogue between Erica and Thomas contrasted with the sometimes barbed dialogue between that of Erica and her mother Katia was very well written as expected from Mr. Colm Toibin. In addition the relationship between Erica and her troubled sibling Klaus made for a very interesting read.

I must admit I knew very little about the life or indeed work of Thomas Mann before reading this book but I enjoyed it thoroughly and it has inspired me to read both Buddenbrooks and Death in Venice.

If I had one complaint it would be that the pace (in my opinion) slowed down during the Mann family's sojourn in America, but I recognise that this is a non fiction novel and this was reflective of what occurred at the time.

Nonetheless, the book was overall very engaging and I particularly enjoyed reading about the era during which time the Nazis rose to power and the impact of this on familys such as the Manns as Germans. This was all clearly extremely well researched by the author and I am grateful and thankful to NetGalley and Penguin General U.K. for providing me with an advance copy.

Having recently read John E Woods' excellent translation of Thomas Mann's 'The Magic Mountain', I was keen to discover more about Mann, and was grateful to receive a copy of 'The Magician' by Colm Toibin from the publisher via Netgalley.

This fictionalised biography is just as readable as Toibin's prize winning 2004 novel 'The Master', which depicted Henry James. As well as being a great read, it provides very useful background and fascinating information on many episodes, places and people in Mann's life influencing his novels and short stories, not least a consideration of the author's sexuality based on reflections in Mann's own private diary.

'The Magician' has certainly encouraged me to read other works by Mann.

An interesting look in the life of 'A Death In Venice' author, Thomas Mann. Beautifully written by Colm Tóibín, although I felt that there could have been a more detailed look into Mann's thoughts, as a lot of it felt quite surface.

This fictional telling of Mann's life feels starkly like non fiction and had me entranced and interested throughout its pages. Throughout the novel he charts the life of Thomas Mann, who is the Nobel prize winning author of 'Death in Venice'.

This was a very well researched and sweeping look on his life, showing with great clarity the many characters who come in and out of it. A book suited well to those who enjoy historical fiction or non fiction, with a good insight to history politics, art, culture during the first half of the 20th century.

Definitely a read slightly veering off what I usually would read, but one I am very happy I requested as I enjoyed it a lot!

Thank you to Netgalley and Penguin General for the arc!!

The Magician is a detailed and very well researched fictional biography of Thomas Mann who won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1929.
Colm Toibin, who’s previously written articles about the Mann family, manages to make this long book interesting, not only for his account of the life of Mann, his eclectic family and other well known individuals, but also for the way he covers the unsettling period of German history over the first half of the 20th century.
Similar in style to Toibin’s book about Henry James ‘The Master,’ both books explore the conflicting sexuality of the protagonists. I didn’t enjoy it as much as other novels he’s written, because although it’s seriously literary and interesting it didn’t draw me in as much as I’d expected it to.
However it is a remarkable achievement that deserves to, and I’m sure will, win awards.

Many thanks to Penguin UK and NetGalley for an ARC

This is a largely fictional, yet meticulously researched, account of the life of Thomas Mann, the Nobel Prize-winning German author of ‘Death in Venice’ and ‘The Magic Mountain’. The story begins with 16 year-old Mann in his small village of Lubeck, where he lives a comfortable life with his vibrant Brazilian mother and much more sedate German father. The family are well-respected and influential, and it is this life of privilege and wealth that allow him to explore life as a writer rather than take up a role in the family’s business. When he marries Katia, an indulged yet cultured woman from a rich, cultured yet chaotic household, he secures a future near to her twin brother with her twin brother, with whom he is fascinated.

Germany in the first half of the 20th century is perhaps not the most fortunate place for a repressed homosexual such as Mann to reside, and he fathers six children with Katia in order to maintain his place in society. Revered for his novels, critical essays and speeches, ‘The Magian’ paints a picture of a stable life of comfort and luxury for Mann and his family, which is then disrupted by First World War and the particular horrors of the Second World War, during which he is exiled to Switzerland, France and finally America.

If you are interested in the life of Thomas Mann, or want to see how life in Europe changed during the first half of the twentieth century, then you will find this book to be fascinating in both its detail and description. Tóibín’s characterisation is an absolute delight, and even with all the Klauses, each character was clearly defined and engaging. I particularly enjoyed the author’s depictions of the strong women in Mann’s life, and found that the deeply complex character of Mann himself was more than a suitable subject for this fictional work – indeed, few people have lived such an interesting life as Thomas Mann. I did, however, find the author’s style to be somewhat dry and ‘heavy’ in places, and the tone often slips into reading more like a non-fiction biography than a novel, with some sections missing the ‘colour’ of the early chapters.

Of absorbing interest even if not quite reaching the vibrant depths usual with Toibin 3.5 raised to 4

I requested this with great pleasure from the publisher as a digital ARC, and looked forward to a ‘delayed gratification of pure pleasure’, savouring my journey till I knew I would have time, attention, head and heart, to offer to it. I’ve never been less than fully surrendered to Toibin’s writing.

Perhaps what often seems so typical of his writing, is his ability to write female characters in a deep way.

With this long novel, he charts the life, of Thomas Mann, and, indeed the Mann clan. The book is written as a kind of almost hybrid between biography of Mann, and a fiction derived from a biography, keeping true (as far as I’m aware) to the facts, the writings and the records of Mann, and the events of his life, that of his parents and siblings, and the second generation, almost all of whom made marks on particular territories of their world

As Thomas Mann certainly created novels from many events of his own life, and in some ways was quite private, with a complex and hidden life, the man himself seems at time hard to feel from inside.

This created a little frustration for me as a reader, as Toibin is a writer who absolutely seems able to hook the reader into experiencing the inner life of his character, and engage us with an emotional as well as intellectual sense of them

Here, I stayed ‘observing’ for the most part – and this was often what Mann seemed to be doing/

Possibly I would have been more admiring if this had been purely biography, without the interiority of a novel, which didn’t quite successfully gel together,

Stunning exception must be made though, of passages where Mann’s experience of music were described, and Toibin’s ability to write into the place where often words can’t reach – an experience of the sublime, soared.

A certainly fascinating sweep of history, politics, art and culture, through the travails of a particular family of cultural influence, taking in the turbulent sweep of European history in the twentieth century through two world wars, and the conflicts between ideologies of the left and right into the rise of McCarthyism in America, and the post war division of Germany into East and West.

I have enjoyed everything I have read by Colm Toibin so far, finding his writing fascinating and well suited to the different topics he chooses. I knew little of Thomas Mann, the book's title character, apart from his famous 'Death in Venice', but was drawn into his life from the outset, despite his uncomfortable beginnings. As a character his voice was prevalent, though not strong, thanks to the array of larger than life family and acquaintances, some of whom proved truly dreadful in their antics and demands on his resources. At times I was aching to urge him to stand up to them and deny them their power over him. Throughout a turbulent period of European history we follow his thought processes leading to his sense of shame at his lack of confident political beliefs and in his sexuality which he strives to conceal throughout his life. Although there are a few dull sections which, for me, detracted slightly from the momentous changes raging through Europe, the novel gives an interesting insight into the world and the social mores of the period, while charting the inner life of an important but vulnerable literary figure. Well worth a read.

The Magician tells the story of German novelist and Nobel Prize winner, Thomas Mann. Spanning six decades we get to understand more about Mann and his relationships with his wife family and children against the backdrop of events affecting Germany. It is a tremendously well researched and beautifully written book. Although I have to admit to not liking Thomas Mann one little bit despite his great literary achievements.

The Magician tells the story of German novelist and Nobel Prize winner, Thomas Mann. The books is an account of his life with Katia, his wife, and his six children. The novel is set over six decades. A significant part of the family’s story takes place in the time of Hitler’s rise to power in 1933 and the subsequent Nazi defeat in 1945.

Having had time to reflect on this book, I have found myself thinking more and more about the lives of those in the immediate and extended Mann family. I was fascinated by their liberalism and the international influence of some of the members.

The manner in which Mann brought his ‘secret’ desires to play in his novels was intriguing. His hidden sexuality, although acknowledged by his close family, was a part of him that I felt Colm Tobin left unexplored. I never felt that I got to fully appreciate the internal wrangling of his mind.

Although classed as fiction, this did have a strong non-fiction feel to it and read almost like a biography. There were times when it was almost thriller-like and times when it seemed like a factual account of his life.

If you want to learn more about the life of Thomas Mann, this is certainly an excellent place to start. It is beautifully written and spans a fascinating period in history.

My sincere thanks to NetGalley and Penguin General Uk for an advanced copy of this book for an honest review.

Very readable and gripping story of the life of Thomas Mann as well as of 20th century European history.

I remember seeing the blurb of this on Netgalley and thought it was right up my alley. I (usually) love anything set in Germany and was fascinated by a narrative from the perspective of a closeted gay man, especially during world war II Germaany. This is what I looked forward to reading in this book. For the first chapter or so, I was engrossed. His early years grappling with his sexaulity was so so intriguing to read about. This was going to be 5 stars, easily. However, it all went downhill very fast. Very little of the book focused on what the blurb led me to believe it would explore.

I didn’t realise this was autofiction. On the one hand I am relieved that these are not solely Colm Tóibín’s thoughts but on the other hand, I am sickened that the main character in this book actually lived and furthermore disgusted by the fact Colm Tóibin chose to write about him. One could argue sure, it’s important to expose such figures but Thomas Mann faced no consequences for his predatory actions, at any point within this book. Additionally, there was no mention of such scandals in the blurb of this book. Unless one knows of Thomas Mann and his controversies already, I feel like there will be lots of people similar to myself who innocently pick up this book, seeing that it is written by the renowned author Colm Tóibin, expecting great things. Instead, all I got was nausea. The fact Thomas Mann won a Nobel Prize for Literature is irrelevant. Colm Tóibín should not have written this book. Not if he didn’t include a plot where Mann faces consequences in some way ie. his diaries being uncovered. That obviously happened at some point, for us to know what we know now however Tóibín chooses to romanticise Mann’s life and is not objective in his writing. A quick read of his Wikipedia page is more than sufficient. I did not enjoy reading a book where Thomas Mann talks of being ‘sexually aroused’ by seeing his naked thirteen year old son, continues to flirt (and oftentimes more than that) with young men and boys, well into his elder years and write novels based on his various predatory fantasies including one which was inspired by the idea of his wife and her twin brother being in an incestuous relationship.

As well as having some scenes that were very uncomfortable to read about, I found the plot rather boring and hard to engage with. As a German studies student at university, I thought this was a highly romanticised narrative of war, of WWII especially. It is from the perspective of highly privileged individuals who ran in very well to-do circles & did not endure even half of the struggles caused by the war. I found it very hard to have empathy. Did they face hardship? Sure. But I find it difficult to have sympathy for someone who ran in the same circles as the American president when I have studied this topic as part of my degree and have read accounts of how devastating it was for those who were not as lucky as Mann.

No doubt, Colm Tóibín is a skillful writer. How he chooses to use this skill is questionable.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for my review copy. Please don’t publish books romanticising the lives of pedophiles in future.

In The Magician, Colm Tóibín tells the story of the life and work of Thomas Mann. A writer writing about a writer, Tóibín enters the psyche of Mann, imagining and reconstructing what the German might have been thinking as he composed his greatest works.

The novel deals with the private life of a public man, his inner desires, his secrets, fears and motivations. A man who, from an early age, felt like an imposter, a confidence man. And it was precisely this inner life that fuelled his work, culminating in Confessions of Felix Krull, Confidence Man, his last, unfinished work.

The Magician is a well-researched work, spanning several decades and dealing with the most troubled period in 20th century history. Although it deals with real-life events and people, it never reads like a dry biography. By focusing on Mann’s reaction and interaction with the events around him, Tóibín managed to keep the novel interesting and gripping, portraying his characters multidimensionally, and thus ensuring a satisfying read.

This is a wonderful read on so many levels. As a family saga, it is gripping, as a wartime chronicle it offers an alternative view and as a biography of Thomas Mann, it is a sympathetic telling of the life of one of the great authors of the twentieth century.
The novel is peppered with references to the many famous names Mann crossed paths with. Literary names such as Brecht & Auden, composers such as Schoenberg and Mahler and leaders such as FDR. 500 pages of such a story may be daunting but in Tobin's hands, it trips along lightly. This is a very rewarding read as Tobin works his magic on this scene just as he mastered the world of Henry James before.

Highly recommended.

I’ve loved the author’s other books but this one was possibly even better. Rich and detailed but so well-plotted. Masterful.

I loved how this book treaded the line between biography and novel. Toibin skillfully switches between the two styles to deliver a narrative that seamlessly offers a fascinating insight into Thomas Mann’s complex life. I hadn’t heard of Mann prior to reading Toibin’s offering, but the synopsis drew me in, and once I started reading, I found the protagonist even more enigmatic. From a complicated and tragic family dynamic, to his struggles with literary success, and sexual and political identity, I found the book educational and engaging.

Colm Toibin turns his attention to Thomas Mann in this lyrical version of the life of a twentieth-century literary titan. This is a breathtaking story of the twentieth century.

Fictionalized telling of Thomas Mann's life, plenty of small detail but skimming the surface. Well researched but didn't keep me interested.

I only recently ‘discovered’ Thomas Mann; I listened to Buddenbrooks and was totally captivated by the saga, the characters and the themes explored in the epic work. He seems to be a rather forgotten and now underrated author who deserves a much wider audience. I was delighted to see that The Magician is about Mann and written by one of my favourite authors.

I love Tóibin’s writing. He’s observant, sharp, and his prose has an elegance that carries the reader into and along with the story. This exploration of Mann’s life in novel form is, I think, very clever. He combines what must be meticulous research into a narrative which although biographical is actually a work of fiction. I knew very little about Mann as a person and found this book filled that gap. He depicts the personal, social and political conflicts faced by Mann with a deft touch and I found the journey absolutely fascinating.

The Magician stands every test for me; I was engrossed by the story, the writing and at the end,I wanted more. Its filled with intrigue about a complex and sometimes fractured individual and I enjoyed it. It’s different, but still a five star read.

My thanks to the publisher for a review copy via Netgalley.