Mary Irvine – The Magician by Colm Tóibín

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Mary Irvine – The Magician by Colm Tóibín

Colm Tóibín‘s historical novel is about the German Nobel Prize-winning writer Thomas Mann. It has been suggested this book could be summed up in a few words – ‘An explanation of the many complexities of Mann’s conflicts, in particular with his homeland of Germany and his own sexuality.’ It could also be regarded as Mann’s journey through life.

‘The Magician’ is not a straightforward biography of Mann but rather a fictionalised biography, which reveals the conflicts within Mann’s family, as well as those within himself. I quickly found myself drawn into all the complexities of what, in modern terms, may be seen as a dysfunctional family. It is a fascinating and compelling read as Mann and his family try to come to terms with each other and with the political machinations of their time..

Thomas Mann, 1874 – 1955, was a multi-talented German writer of novels and novellas who has two books in lists of books of all time. One is ‘The Magic Mountain’, the other the novella ‘Death in Venice’ which was made into a highly acclaimed film in 1971, under the same title, directed and produced by Italian filmmaker Luchino Visconti. Mann is considered by many, and probably is, the most famous, most read writer of his particular period of history, which spanned two world wars.

Larry D. Moore, CC BY 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons

Colm Tóibín , the Irish author, is also a short story writer, playwright, poet, essayist and critic. His novels have gained him many awards including: the Costa Novel Award (2009), Rathbones Folio Prize (2022), the David Cohen Prize for Literature (2021) and he was shortlisted for the Walter Scott prize for Historical Fiction (2022).

Mary Irvine, September, 2025

Colm Tóibín novels

The South (1990)
The Heatrher Blazing (1992)
The Story of the Nifght (1996)
The Blackwater Lightship (1999)
The Mastrer (2004)
Brooklyn (2009)
The Testament of Mary (2012)
Norah Webster (2014)
House of Names (2017)
The Magician (2021)
Long Island (2024)

‘The Magician’ is avaiable on Amazon, Kindle edition £5.99, Paperback £10.99