The Magician Author:Sol Stein This is a tale of two magicians, of high school extortion and violence, and of a criminal trial in which the guilty go free. Selected by the Book-of-the-Month Club, The Magician has sold over one million copies. Webster Schott wrote in the New York Times Book Review, I cannot recall a novel of this type with greater pleasure. Beautiful and gripp... more »ing.
"Ed Japhet, an extraordinarily gifted and popular sixteen-year-old, puts on a remarkable magic show at his high school prom. After the highly successful performance, Ed is savagely attacked with a tire chain and beaten nearly to death by a vicious psychopathic classmate who, with his followers, holds the whole school in terror. It seems that there is an open-and-shut case against the brutal young assailant- until a brilliant, unscrupulous defense attorney takes over and proves that the courtroom, like the stage, can be a theater of illusion..."« less