The Magician’s Assistant: The Sunday Times best selling author of The Dutch House and Bel Canto, Winner of The Women’s Prize for Fiction

Most people can’t be magicians for the same reason they can’t be criminals. They have guilty souls. Deception doesn’t come naturally. They want to be caught.

We were so in love with each other, we were so relieved that the past was behind us, I don’t think we wanted to talk about it.”

For a moment Dot stopped, her words choked down with worry. “I love my children,” she said. “No one will tell you otherwise, but just between the two of us I have to say I admire you for not having any. The ways they break your heart, Jesus, and it never stops. I mean it, it simply does not stop.”

Gerber daisies.

Magic was less about surprise than it was about control. You lead them in one direction and then come up behind their backs. They watch you, at every turn they will be suspicious, but you give them decoys. People long to be amazed, even as they fight it. Once you amaze them, you own them.

It was something that Parsifal figured out when he was halfway through his career as a magician: People don’t pay attention. They don’t know how. They can smell guilt or fear from the other side of the Dodgers’ stadium, but if you simply go about your business with authority no one can tell.