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Ann Patchett

The Magician's Assistant CD Audio CD – Unabridged, May 13, 2008

by Ann Patchett (Author), Karen Ziemba (Reader)

1,760 ratings

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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 adventure she embarks upon, from sunny Los Angeles to the bitter windswept plains of Nebraska, will work its own magic on her. Sabine's extraordinary tale captures the hearts of its readers just as Sabine is captured by her quest.

Language

English
Publisher

HarperAudio
Publication date

May 13, 2008
Dimensions

5.25 x 1.5 x 5.75 inches
ISBN-10

0061438332
ISBN-13

978-0061438332
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Ann Patchett
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Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

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 (Reviews, July 14, 1997)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

About the Author

ANN PATCHETT is the author of seven novels and three works of nonfiction. She is the winner of the PEN/Faulkner Award, England's Orange Prize, and the Book Sense Book of the Year, and was named one of Time magazine's 100 Most Influential People in the World. Her work has been translated into more than thirty languages. She is the co-owner of Parnassus Books in Nashville, Tennessee, where she lives with her husband, Karl, and their dog, Sparky. annpatchett.com.

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Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ HarperAudio; Unabridged edition (May 13, 2008)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0061438332
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0061438332
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 9.6 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.25 x 1.5 x 5.75 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #2,555,053 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #19,944 in Books on CD
- #116,208 in Literary Fiction (Books)

Customer Reviews:
1,760 ratings

About the author

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Ann Patchett

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Ann Patchett is the author of six novels, including Bel Canto, which won the Orange Prize for Fiction. She writes for the New York Times Magazine, Elle, GQ, the Financial Times, the Paris Review and Vogue. She lives in Nashville, Tennessee.

Customer reviews

5 star		48%
4 star		28%
3 star		16%
2 star		6%
1 star		3%

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Top reviews from the United States

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Ellen Green Andrews

The plot thickens....sort of like a thin white sauce.

Reviewed in the United States on October 30, 2019

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This is my first Ann Patchett novel and I'd heard good things about this writer, so I was very excited to read this. I should have saved my excitement for something more worthy. The plot is plodding and about as deep as a wading pool. Just when you think it will get better it peters out. The characters are thinly developed and if the author meant to leave things up to the readers imagination or was writing a fill in the blanks book, it's well done, as you are left having to supply character depth with your imagination. I kept reading to the end hoping the plot and characters would find their moment of glory, but after the magic trick at the wedding (really, a magic trick at the wedding, how cheesy, why would you do that and steal the brides thunder?) and turning to the next page (electronically) I realized that was the end of the book. Talk about feeling cheated. I never need the author to spell out every little detail and nuance of a book, but I do need to see closure. This book lacks that satisfying closure. I'm not even asking for a HAE ending, but to abruptly leave your reader scratching their heads saying. "And....?" If this book wasn't past it's return by date I would do so. I will probably leave this writer to those that adore the unfinished novel idea.

30 people found this helpful

Helpful

BEAUTIFULLY TOLD SURREAL STORY

Reviewed in the United States on November 22, 2017

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This was a beautifully crafted surreal story about a woman, Sabine, after the death of her husband. Her grief was painfully realistic (I am also a widow) with so many unusual twists and turns that I couldn't put the book down: A gay husband whom she never had an intimate relationship with; her husband's lover who has predeceased him but cared so much for Sabine that he bought a cemetery plot for her so that she could be buried with them; a completely dysfunctional family from Nebraska that Sabine knew nothing about and, of course, Sabine's vivid dreams that felt like messages "from the other side." Having lived in Los Angeles, I even loved the references to beloved places like Cantor's Deli. All of these disparate elements were beautifully woven together to make a story that has endeared me to this author. This is the first of Ann Patchett's books that I have read but will now buy the rest of her works.

This is a wonderful book by a very talented author that I am happy to recommend.

46 people found this helpful

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Juanita Bradstreet

Not my type of reading.

Reviewed in the United States on June 14, 2019

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Review: The Magician’s Assistant by Ann Patchett. 3 Stars 05/06/2019

This was a very original story by Ann Patchett. The writing is flawless and full of ironic thinking for the characters. The language and descriptions throughout the story kept me fascinated. Pachett manages two sub-plots weaving within the story. Placing a few random events seem magical but helped enhance the story. The characters were creative and well developed.

The story begins with the death of the magician and leaves Sabine a widow. Sabine’s enclosed with grief that she spends most of her time in bed until she got a call from the magician’s lawyer with some surprising strange news. Sometime later in the story the readers find out who Sabine’s husband Parsifal really was. They were only married for a year and she was Parsifal’s assistant. She still married him even as she new he had another love. Even though she knew he was gay and would never love her, she still devoted her life and love to him anyway.

During Sabine’s grief for Parsifal she was confused when she heard her husband had kept the truth from her about where he came from and his true identity.

8 people found this helpful

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Joseph Sciuto

WONDERFUL!!!!!

Reviewed in the United States on July 24, 2021

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A book so beautifully written, powered and energized by a fascinating group of characters, that I truly wish it never ended, and in a sense it didn't because after reading the final lines of the book I was left thinking about the future of all the characters, even the dead ones. In this sense it was very Hemingwayesque.

Sabine, the main character, is working as a waitress in a comedy club in Los Angeles. The magician onstage picks her to come onto the stage and assist him in an act of magic. Sabine is gorgeous and young, and at first she is too shy to go up on stage but when she finally relents she falls in love with the magician whose stage name is Parsiafal. He is handsome, caring, and sensitive and he is also gay but that does not stop them from staying and living together until the day he dies. His lover, Phan, lives with them and buys them a huge house, which they all live happily in. When Phan dies of AIDS, Parsiafal marries Sabine because he also has AIDS and wants to make sure that all that he leaves her when he dies is not contested by anyone. They are married for about a year and a half when Parsisfal dies, not from AIDS, but from a brain aneurism.

Suddenly, left alone in this big house with all these wonderful memories she finds it impossible not to live without Parsiafal. She can't let go, and then it occurs to her that she knows very little of Parsiafal's younger life... just tiny bits and pieces that she quickly finds out do not add up.

His so called family that he told her all died in a car accident, are mostly alive and living in Nebraska. His mother and younger sister come to visit Los Angeles when they find out he has passed away and he has left them a sizable chunk of money. Sabine meets them, and gets along so well with them that she visits them in Nebraska and it is here that she discovers the tragic history of her husband's youth, as told by his mother, younger sister, and his twin sister Kitty.

Parsiafal is once again in her life through his mother and sisters and her love for him only grows, and the family's love for him has always been there, even though they have never seen him since he left at eighteen. He, until the end of his life, has send his mother money but never have they communicated.

Yes, this beautiful and amazing book tells you that you can go back to your younger days, that love is eternal even at a distance, and that in the face of a twin sister that looks very much like the deceased, you can once again find the love of your life for a second time.

I Loved this book and I highly, highly recommend it.

2 people found this helpful

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Mrs Margaret Ramsay

One of Ann Pratchett's best.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on February 8, 2021

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I absolutely love Ann Pratchett books. A pity I couldn't get this title in England anywhere, and had to import from USA. The story in this one gets better and has more surprises as it goes on. What people are thinking beneath the actual events is wonderful. Just how people do behave.

Baa

Very well written but it became boring

Reviewed in France on November 1, 2020

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If I hadn't paid for it, I might have stopped reading it about a third of the way through: it's extremely well written but after a while the author doesn't seem to have much more to say and it becomes boring. I much preferred her novel Bel Canto, where she keeps the reader's interest right up to the last pages, even if (as in The Magician's Assistant) the ending is disappointingly implausible.

sfd

a magical read!

Reviewed in Canada on December 22, 2020

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Ann Pachett is a wonderful author and this novel confirms her talent.
Completely enjoyable.

sfd

Snoopy

A Magician's Assistent

Reviewed in Germany on June 12, 2017

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Ein wunderschönes Buch über Trauer und Liebe von der großen Ann Patchett.

Die große Liebe von Sabine stirbt und sie lernt endlich seine Familie und seine Vergangenheit kennen.

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goodpepper

Wonderful storyteller. I love all of the characters she creates and this book is pure magic.

Reviewed in Canada on September 9, 2016

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I like be all of the characters she creates. I waited patiently for Phan returning. Another thing I love is that she doesn't wrap up the story but gives you the chance to think about possible endings with enough to think about throughout to guide you

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The Magician's Assistant CD Audio CD – Unabridged, May 13, 2008

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About the Author

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About the author

Ann Patchett

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