The Magician

Name: The Magician
Brand: Blackstone Audiobooks
Availability: InStock
Author: Sol Stein
ISBN: 9781455103263

Author: Sol Stein

Narrator: Tom Parker

Unabridged: 7 hr 8 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Published: 06/24/2005

Categories: Fiction

Synopsis

The Magician is the now famous story of two sixteenyearold antagonists locked in the crucible of their high school from which neither can escape. Ed Japhet gives a skillful performance of magic at the school prom. After the prom, Ed and his girlfriend are beset by Urek, the leader of a school gang that extracts extortion money by "renting" kids their own lockers. Ed is the only student who refuses to pay extortion money. Urek's fury at Japhet's defiance results in an attempted murder, a criminal trial, and death, with a shocker of an ending. Selected by the BookoftheMonth Club and widely taught in American schools, this book has sold over a million copies and has been published all over the world, including Britain, France, Germany, and as far away as Russia and Japan.

About Sol Stein

Sol Stein (1926–2019) was a writer, editor, poet, publisher, teacher, and prizewinning playwright who was produced on Broadway. He and his wife founded the publishing company Stein and Day in 1966 and worked with such well-known authors as James Baldwin, Elia Kazan, George Orwell, and Lionel Trilling, some of the most successful writers of the century. Stein authored nine novels, four works of nonfiction, and three plays and screenplays, as well as the computer programs WritePro®, FictionMaster®, and FirstAid for Writers®.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Bandit on October 15, 2016

Meant to read something for banned books week or month and here it is some time later. This was according to the extensive (and somewhat pompous though fortunately that tone in no way transported to the book itself) briefly banned in one of those small minded small towns that also banned The Great G......more

Goodreads review by Gray on September 16, 2013

I hated this book. It made me angry, and that's reasonably difficult. However, it made me angry through truths, and while that's even more difficult, it's valuable.......more

Goodreads review by Bruce on August 14, 2016

This effectively plotted novel dramatizes the question: Does the adversarial system for trying serious crimes promote justice? The magician of the title at first refers to the victim of a felonious assault, a high school student who performs magic tricks. By the end of the novel, however, it refers......more

Goodreads review by TJ on July 05, 2024

I was torn between a 4 or 5 star rating, but considering the book had me wanting more, I went with 5. This book is a gripping tale of bullying and school gangs with a good twist ending!......more

Goodreads review by Doug on September 07, 2014

It was a good book. Literate. Well written. I enjoyed it, sorta. The main issue was plausibility. SPOILER ALERT! We have a gang of high school thugs able to extort protection money with impunity from all but one student even though that one is not particularly strong nor athletic. We have a clear cas......more