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The Art of Disappearing: A Novel
by Ivy Pochoda
Published: 2009-09-15
Hardcover: 320 pages
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How do you know if love is real or just an illusion?

When Mel Snow meets the talented magician Toby Warring in a dusty roadside bar, she is instantly drawn to the brilliant performer whose hands can effortlessly pull stray saltshakers and poker chips from thin air and conjure castles out of the desert...

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Introduction

 How do you know if love is real or just an illusion?

When Mel Snow meets the talented magician Toby Warring in a dusty roadside bar, she is instantly drawn to the brilliant performer whose hands can effortlessly pull stray saltshakers and poker chips from thin air and conjure castles out of the desert sands. Just two days later they are married, beginning their life together in the shadow of Las Vegas, where Toby hopes to make it big. Mel knows that magicians are a dime a dozen, but Toby is different?his magic is real.

As Toby's renown grows and Mel falls more and more in love with his wonderments, she starts to realize that Toby's powers are as unstable as they are dazzling. She learns that he once made his assistant disappear completely, and couldn?t bring her back. And then, just as Mel becomes convinced that his magic is dangerous, a trick goes terribly awry during his Strip debut.
Exiled from the stage, Mel and Toby flee the lights of Las Vegas for the streets of Amsterdam where a cabal of old-time magicians, real magicians like Toby, try to rescue him from his despair. But he's haunted by the trick that failed, and obsessed with using his powers to right his mistakes, leaving Mel to wonder if the love they share is genuine or merely a fantasy, conjured up by a lost magician looking to save himself from being alone.
Ivy Pochoda's spellbinding and cinematic storytelling seamlessly fuses timeless magic to modern-day passion. Haunting and beautiful, The Art of Disappearing is an imaginative and captivating love story destined to enchant readers for years to come.

Excerpt

I married Tobias Warring in the Silver Bells All-Nite Wedding Chapel in Las Vegas. It was a conventional start to our unconventional story. And it was an attempt to conjure something solid from the wind scattered sands. Our faces were bathed in the pink and purple lights of the Stardust Casino flashing through a two-by-two foot window behind the priest’s head. Our witnesses were a couple of underage punks from the QuikTrip who demanded a six pack for their services. “Have a nice life,” lisped the boy with three rings through his lip, ripping the ring top from his beer. His girlfriend, anxious to reclaim her spot outside the convenience store, gnawed her chipped nails. The priest, an elderly Mexican in tinted sunglasses complained about working the graveyard shift, and told us that he’d once led a pilgrimage of fifty blind children to the Corcavado, but had since fallen on hard times. He closed his bible, switched off the crackly tape-recorder playing “Love Me Tender,” and it was over. ...view entire excerpt...

Discussion Questions

There is an immediate attraction between Toby and Mel.

1. What is it about their characters that draws them to one another? Why do they decide to get married after such a short acquaintance?
2. Toby is a capable of both strange and wonderful things. But thereis an unknowable and perhaps darker element to his craft. Why is Mel so accepting of this?
3. After finishing the book, do you think it is a coincidence that Toby and Mel met at the Old Stand Saloon?-

Weblinks

» Publisher's Book Info
» Author Ivy Pochoda's web site

Notes From the Author to the Bookclub

Dear Reader,

If you enjoyed The Time Traveler's Wife, I'd love to introduce you to my debut novel The Art of Disappearing, an imaginative and haunting love story, where a world unfolds in which magic is a fickle and powerful force, love can save and destroy, and a couple's fate can be sealed by a mere slight of hand.

When Mel Snow, a traveling textile designer, meets Toby Warring, an unconventional magician, in a dusty Nevada saloon, they instantly fall in love and marry. But then Toby discovers a darker and more thrilling side to his craft, causing Mel to wonder, how love can be real if so much else in an illusion?

Please email me at ivy@ivypochoda.com and answer this question: If a magic trick could transport you anywhere in the world, where would you go? The five best answers will receive a signed copy.

Enjoy my novel!

Ivy Pochoda

www.ivypochoda.com

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