Sweeping between Prague during World War II and modern-day Los Angeles, โThe Trick is a lyrical, uplifting, and funny story that will tug at all of your heartstringsโ (Armando Lucas Correa, bestselling author of The German Girl) that follows a young boy seeking out a cynical, old magician in the hopes that his spells might keep his family together.
In 1934, a rabbiโs son in Prague joins a traveling circus, becomes a magician, and rises to fame under the stage name the Great Zabbatini, just as Europe descends into World War II. When Zabbatini is discovered to be a Jew, his battered trunk full of magic tricks becomes his only hope for survival.
Seventy years later in Los Angeles, ten-year-old Max finds a scratched-up LP that captured Zabbatini performing his greatest illusions. But the track in which Zabbatini performs the spell of eternal loveโthe spell Max believes will keep his parents from getting divorcedโis damaged beyond repair. Desperate for a solution, Max seeks out the now elderly, cynical magician and begs him for help.
With gentle wisdom and heartbreaking humor, this is an inventive, deeply moving story about a young boy who needs a miracle, and a disillusioned old man who needs redemption.