The Illusionist

(Paperback)

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In this sensuous and intriguing novel the unexpected appearance of Dean Lily, a charismatic young man with magical gifts, dramatically transforms a once beautiful town in Upstate New York and prompts the age-old question: What do women really want Dean deftly uses his considerable charms on the local women, and his elaborate seductions are met with little resistance. The women Dean sets his sights on are incapable of recognizing him for who and what he is. THE ILLUSIONIST is a haunting, fiercely erotic novel that thwarts conventions of gender and love.

Reviews

Chicago Tribune Beautifully written. With this haunting book, Smith tells a wonderful tale and raises provocative questions. Stephen King Mesmerizing, erotic suspense. Alan Cheuse All Things Considered A powerful novel about sexual desire and social disorder. Edward Hower The New York Times Book Review A skillfully written novel. And its greatest strength is the sensitivity with which Smith explores the complexities of love. Detour magazine Smoke-and-mirrors prose that would dazzle Houdini...Smith has written a truly chilling winter's tale. Carolyn See The Washington Post Dinitia Smith has taken this "true" story and given its characters introspection and sad dignity. Carole Goldberg The Hartford Courant [Smith] nails the fading ambience of a town that has lost its reason for being. And she shows poignantly why...women will seek and sustain the illusion of love. Maureen Corrigan NPR Fresh Air [A] quicksilver novel in which nothing, not even sexual identity, is unwavering...Smith has stripped away an even greater illusion: that human sexuality is straightforward and fathomable, normative and neat. Rosellen Brown The Illusionist is a terrifying story of the ways good people can follow their most generous instincts straight into tragedy. Dinitia Smith's novel makes the bizarre plausible while it heightens the ordinary. I was caught in its web, beguiled from first page to last. Larry Kramer A haunting, heartbreaking, utterly unforgettable novel. What an overwhelming accomplishment of the imagination!

Author Bio

Dinitia Smith is the author of two previous novels, Hard Rain and Remember This. She is an Emmy Award-winning filmmaker and has taught creative writing at Columbia University. She is now a national correspondent for culture at The New York Times and lives in New York City.