Christopher Priest

A 19th Century feud between two English stage magicians. Their rivalry centers over instant displacement by electricity from one end of a stage to the other, the contest degenerating into dirty tricks. Told from the perspective of their descendants, a man and a woman. By the author of The Glamour.

A petty thief known as John Smith was arrested for fraudulent behavior in 1877. He tricked women into thinking he was rich, then stole their belongings and vanished. His guilt was obvious. In 1852, Adler and Adolf Beck's father died on an expedition to a glacier, and their lives separated. One became a respected climate scientist, one a successful opera singer touring the world. Or so he claimed. But both remained in touch, if only to share the mysterious...

Set against the backdrop of turn-of-the-century London. Two magicians share an intense rivalry with each other and leads them on a life-long battle for supremacy. The rivalry is so intense that is will be full of obsession, deceit and jealousy, with both dangerous and deadly consequences. From the time that Robert Angier and Alfred Bordon first met, the two were competitors. However, their once friendly competition evolves into battle for each others...