I love it when a book opens windows into lives and parts of history previously unknown to me. This was very much the case with Colm Toibin’s latest ambitious work - The Magician. Grounded in historical fact, it weaves its narrative around the life of German author Thomas Mann. In his day Mann was as famous as his German compatriot Einstein, finding fame initially through the success of his epic novel, Buddenbrook. In this novel Toibin imagines his way into the life, and the mind, of Mann and opens this world to the reader.

The Magician is a highly ambitious work, which successfully merges the intimate details of Mann and his family with the momentous historical events that occurred during his lifetime. The first World War dismays him and he writes a Nationalist essay (later regretted), which makes him a target for execution, from which he only narrowly escapes. When the second World War is imminent, he is forced to flee his homeland and makes his way to America, via Sweden and Britain. Years later he returns to Europe but is never welcomed back to his homeland, and spends the rest of his life displaced. A man without a country.

There is a vast cast of characters in the book and in many ways, although fascinating as the central focus, Mann is the least colourful of them. His wife and children provide plenty of rich material for the narrative - from his exotic souse Katia to his six eclectic and bohemian offspring. (His daughter Ericka marries WH Auden - not out of love, given that they are both gay, but for a British passport). 

The emotional power of Toibin’s writing comes from the apparent simplicity of the prose, but there is much to reflect on and absorb. This is a book that stayed with me long after I had finished reading it. Definitely one of my reading highlights from the last 12 months!