The Broadneck Library will be closed Monday, April 1 - Tuesday, April 16 for branch improvements. Please plan to pickup your holds at another location

The Riviera Beach Library is currently closed. For more information on the new location, please visit the Riviera Beach Library

The Magician's Assistant
(Adobe EPUB eBook, Kindle Book, OverDrive Read)

Book Cover
Average Rating
5 star
 
(1)
4 star
 
(0)
3 star
 
(0)
2 star
 
(0)
1 star
 
(0)
Published:
HarperCollins 2004
Format:
Adobe EPUB eBook, Kindle Book, OverDrive Read
Status:
Checked Out
Description

From the bestselling author of The Dutch House, a secretive magician's death becomes the catalyst for his partner's journey of self-discovery in this "enchanting" book (San Francisco Chronicle) "that is something of a magic trick in itself." (Newsweek)

When Parsifal, a handsome and charming magician, dies suddenly, his widow Sabine—who was also his faithful assistant for twenty years—learns that the family he claimed to have lost in a tragic accident is very much alive and well. Sabine is left to unravel his secrets, and the journey she takes, from sunny Los Angeles to the bitter windswept plains of Nebraska, will work its own magic on her.

Sabine's extraordinary tale, "with its big dreams, vast spaces, and disparate realities lying side by side" captures the hearts of its readers and "proves to be the perfect place for miraculous transformations." (The New Yorker)


Also in This Series
Formats
Adobe EPUB eBook
Works on all eReaders (except Kindles), desktop computers and mobile devices with reading apps installed.
Kindle Book
Works on Kindles and devices with a Kindle app installed.
OverDrive Read
Need Help?
If you are having problem transferring a title to your device, please fill out this support form or visit the library so we can help you to use our eBooks and eAudio Books.
More Like This
Other Editions and Formats
More Details
Street Date:
09/17/2004
Language:
English
ISBN:
9780547548791
ASIN:
B003WUYQ64
Citations
APA Citation (style guide)

Ann Patchett. (2004). The Magician's Assistant. HarperCollins.

Chicago / Turabian - Author Date Citation (style guide)

Ann Patchett. 2004. The Magician's Assistant. HarperCollins.

Chicago / Turabian - Humanities Citation (style guide)

Ann Patchett, The Magician's Assistant. HarperCollins, 2004.

MLA Citation (style guide)

Ann Patchett. The Magician's Assistant. HarperCollins, 2004.

Note! Citation formats are based on standards as of July 2022. Citations contain only title, author, edition, publisher, and year published. Citations should be used as a guideline and should be double checked for accuracy.
Copy Details
LibraryOwnedAvailable
Anne Arundel County Public Library20
Staff View
Grouped Work ID:
2712e6cb-9a18-0ba3-9626-0e26f1893491
Go To Grouped Work
Needs Update?:
No
Date Added:
Apr 07, 2017 17:46:18
Date Updated:
Apr 06, 2023 00:09:25
Last Metadata Check:
Mar 28, 2024 22:39:23
Last Metadata Change:
Mar 05, 2024 21:49:50
Last Availability Check:
Mar 28, 2024 22:39:24
Last Availability Change:
Feb 28, 2024 14:07:10
Last Grouped Work Modification Time:
Mar 29, 2024 04:05:49

OverDrive Product Record

images
    • cover:
        • href: https://img1.od-cdn.com/ImageType-100/0293-1/{FE862100-623C-412E-8B2C-F6E988C40BE0}IMG100.JPG
        • type: image/jpeg
    • thumbnail:
        • href: https://img1.od-cdn.com/ImageType-200/0293-1/{FE862100-623C-412E-8B2C-F6E988C40BE0}IMG200.JPG
        • type: image/jpeg
    • cover150Wide:
        • href: https://img1.od-cdn.com/ImageType-150/0293-1/{FE862100-623C-412E-8B2C-F6E988C40BE0}IMG150.JPG
        • type: image/jpeg
    • cover300Wide:
        • href: https://img1.od-cdn.com/ImageType-400/0293-1/{FE862100-623C-412E-8B2C-F6E988C40BE0}IMG400.JPG
        • type: image/jpeg
formats
      • identifiers:
            • type: ISBN
            • value: 9780547548791
      • name: Adobe EPUB eBook
      • id: ebook-epub-adobe
      • identifiers:
            • type: ASIN
            • value: B003WUYQ64
      • name: Kindle Book
      • id: ebook-kindle
      • identifiers:
            • type: ISBN
            • value: 9780547548791
      • name: OverDrive Read
      • id: ebook-overdrive
otherFormatIdentifiers
      • type: ISBN
      • value: 9780156006217
mediaType
eBook
primaryCreator
    • role: Author
    • name: Ann Patchett
isOwnedByCollections
True
title
The Magician's Assistant
dateAdded
2019-01-02T18:19:00Z
contentDetails
      • href: https://link.overdrive.com/?websiteID=51&titleID=574531
      • type: text/html
      • account:
          • name: Maryland's Digital Library (MD)
          • id: 831
sortTitle
Magicians Assistant
crossRefId
574531
id
FE862100-623C-412E-8B2C-F6E988C40BE0
starRating
3.7

OverDrive MetaData

isPublicDomain
False
formats
      • fileName: TheMagiciansAssistan_9780547548791_574531
      • partCount: 0
      • fileSize: 466685
      • identifiers:
            • type: ISBN
            • value: 9780547548791
      • rights:
            • type: Copying
            • value: 0
            • type: Printing
            • value: 0
            • type: Lending
            • value: 0
            • type: ReadAloud
            • value: 1
            • type: ExpirationRights
            • value: 0
      • name: Adobe EPUB eBook
      • isReadAlong: False
      • id: ebook-epub-adobe
      • onSaleDate: 9/17/2004
      • samples:
            • source: From the book
            • formatType: ebook-overdrive
            • url: https://samples.overdrive.com/magician-s-assistant?.epub-sample.overdrive.com
      • fileName: TheMagiciansAssistan_574531
      • partCount: 0
      • fileSize: 0
      • identifiers:
            • type: ASIN
            • value: B003WUYQ64
      • name: Kindle Book
      • isReadAlong: False
      • id: ebook-kindle
      • onSaleDate: 9/17/2004
      • samples:
            • source: From the book
            • formatType: ebook-overdrive
            • url: https://samples.overdrive.com/magician-s-assistant?.epub-sample.overdrive.com
      • fileName: TheMagiciansAssistan_9780547548791_574531
      • partCount: 0
      • fileSize: 0
      • identifiers:
            • type: ISBN
            • value: 9780547548791
      • name: OverDrive Read
      • isReadAlong: False
      • id: ebook-overdrive
      • onSaleDate: 9/17/2004
      • samples:
            • source: From the book
            • formatType: ebook-overdrive
            • url: https://samples.overdrive.com/magician-s-assistant?.epub-sample.overdrive.com
creators
      • role: Author
      • fileAs: Patchett, Ann
      • bioText: ANN PATCHETT is the author of eight novels: The Patron Saint of Liars, Taft, The Magician's Assistant, Bel Canto, Run, State of Wonder, Commonwealth, and The Dutch House as well as three books of nonfiction: Truth & Beauty, about her friendship with the writer Lucy Grealy, What Now? an expansion of her graduation address at Sarah Lawrence College, and This is the Story of a Happy Marriage, a collection of essays examining the theme of commitment.
      • name: Ann Patchett
imprint
Harper Audio
publishDate
2004-09-17T00:00:00-04:00
isOwnedByCollections
True
title
The Magician's Assistant
fullDescription

From the bestselling author of The Dutch House, a secretive magician's death becomes the catalyst for his partner's journey of self-discovery in this "enchanting" book (San Francisco Chronicle) "that is something of a magic trick in itself." (Newsweek)

When Parsifal, a handsome and charming magician, dies suddenly, his widow Sabine—who was also his faithful assistant for twenty years—learns that the family he claimed to have lost in a tragic accident is very much alive and well. Sabine is left to unravel his secrets, and the journey she takes, from sunny Los Angeles to the bitter windswept plains of Nebraska, will work its own magic on her.

Sabine's extraordinary tale, "with its big dreams, vast spaces, and disparate realities lying side by side" captures the hearts of its readers and "proves to be the perfect place for miraculous transformations." (The New Yorker)


reviews
      • premium: True
      • source: Publisher's Weekly
      • content:

        Starred review from October 15, 1997
        As she proved in her two previous, critically praised novels, The Patron Saint of Liars and Taft, Patchett has the ability to leaven the gravity of sad situations with gentle irony and ultimate hope. Again in this novel, ordinary people drift into offbeat situations; kindness comes from unexpected sources; and the capacity to change, and to endure, can be awakened in a dormant heart. Sabine had been assistant to L.A. magician Parsifal for 22 years when they finally married. She knew he was homosexual; both had mourned the death of his gentle Vietnamese lover, Phan. What she didn't know until Parsifal's sudden death only a short time later was that Parsifal's real name was Guy Fetters, that had he lied when he claimed to have no living relatives and that he has a mother and two sisters in Alliance, Neb. When these four women meet each other, their combined love for Parsifal helps Sabine to accept the shocking events in Parsifal's life that motivated him to wipe out his past. In finding herself part of his family, she discovers her own desires, responsibilities and potential, and maybe her true sexual nature. The muted tone of this narrative matches Sabine's tentative moves in the void of her loss; yet Patchett's sweet and plangent voice often reminds one of Laurie Colwin in its evocation of love that transcends sexual boundaries and in the portrayal of reassuring patterns of domesticity. And Patchett's ability to evoke sense of place--from the quintessential L.A., basking in heat and eccentric characters to the bare Nebraska landscape populated by bland, wholesome Midwesterners (who, of course, are not what they seem) and buffeted by blizzards and temperatures so low that Sabine feels the hook of her bra "freezing into her skin, the finest knifepoint against her spine"--is near magical in itself. If the narrative moves at a deliberately slow pace, it's rich with the rewarding contrast between the precise mechanics of magic tricks and the real possibility of magic in daily life. $50,000 ad/promo; author tour; U.K. and translation rights: ICM

      • premium: True
      • source: Publisher's Weekly
      • content:

        April 28, 2008
        After working as his assistant for more than 20 years, Sabine marries her beloved boss, Parcifal, knowing that he's gay and has just lost his lover. What she doesn't find out until after his death from AIDS is that Parcifal was actually Guy Fettera from Alliance, Neb., and had a family he never spoke about. Karen Ziemba creates an appropriately light tone for the narrator, despite some dark events that Sabine discovers when she visits Parcifal's sweet, dysfunctional family. She crafts clear, flat Midwest accents for the magician's mother and sisters and her pace and annunciation are excellent. Ziemba's men all sound alike, but they play minimal roles. She is an experienced and professional reader with just the right stuff for Patchett's 1997 novel, which probes the complex motives of Parcifal and his assistant. A Harcourt paperback

popularity
4976
links
    • self:
        • href: https://api.overdrive.com/v1/collections/v1L2BaQAAAOQCAAA1L/products/fe862100-623c-412e-8b2c-f6e988c40be0/metadata
        • type: application/vnd.overdrive.api+json
id
fe862100-623c-412e-8b2c-f6e988c40be0
starRating
3.8
images
    • cover:
        • href: https://img1.od-cdn.com/ImageType-100/0293-1/{FE862100-623C-412E-8B2C-F6E988C40BE0}IMG100.JPG
        • type: image/jpeg
    • thumbnail:
        • href: https://img1.od-cdn.com/ImageType-200/0293-1/{FE862100-623C-412E-8B2C-F6E988C40BE0}IMG200.JPG
        • type: image/jpeg
    • cover150Wide:
        • href: https://img1.od-cdn.com/ImageType-150/0293-1/{FE862100-623C-412E-8B2C-F6E988C40BE0}IMG150.JPG
        • type: image/jpeg
    • cover300Wide:
        • href: https://img1.od-cdn.com/ImageType-400/0293-1/{FE862100-623C-412E-8B2C-F6E988C40BE0}IMG400.JPG
        • type: image/jpeg
isPublicPerformanceAllowed
False
languages
      • code: en
      • name: English
subjects
      • value: Fantasy
      • value: Fiction
      • value: Literature
publishDateText
09/17/2004
otherFormatIdentifiers
      • type: ISBN
      • value: 9780156006217
mediaType
eBook
shortDescription

From the bestselling author of The Dutch House, a secretive magician's death becomes the catalyst for his partner's journey of self-discovery in this "enchanting" book (San Francisco Chronicle) "that is something of a magic trick in itself." (Newsweek)

When Parsifal, a handsome and charming magician, dies suddenly, his widow Sabine—who was also his faithful assistant for twenty years—learns that the family he claimed to have lost in a tragic accident is very much alive and well. Sabine is left to unravel his secrets, and the journey she takes, from sunny Los Angeles to the bitter windswept plains of Nebraska, will work its own magic on her.

Sabine's extraordinary tale, "with its big dreams, vast spaces, and disparate realities lying side by side" captures the hearts of its readers and "proves to be the perfect place for miraculous transformations." (The New Yorker)


sortTitle
Magicians Assistant
crossRefId
574531
publisher
HarperCollins
bisacCodes
      • code: FIC019000
      • description: Fiction / Literary
      • code: FIC061000
      • description: Fiction / Magical Realism
      • code: FIC045010
      • description: Fiction / Family Life / Marriage & Divorce