The Magician is the now famous story of two sixteen-year-old antagonists locked in the crucible of their high school from which neither can escape.
Ed Japhet gives a skillful performance of magic at the school prom. After the prom, Ed and his girlfriend are beset by Urek, the leader of a school gang that extracts extortion money by “renting” kids their own lockers. Ed is the only student who refuses to pay extortion money. Urek’s fury at Japhet’s defiance results in an attempted murder, a criminal trial, and death, with a shocker of an ending.
Selected by the Book-of-the-Month Club and widely taught in American schools, this book has sold over a million copies and has been published all over the world, including Britain, France, Germany, and as far away as Russia and Japan.
Sol Stein (1926–2019) was a writer, editor, poet, publisher, teacher, and prizewinning playwright who was produced on Broadway. He and his wife founded the publishing company Stein and Day in 1966 and worked with such well-known authors as James Baldwin, Elia Kazan, George Orwell, and Lionel Trilling, some of the most successful writers of the century. Stein authored nine novels, four works of nonfiction, and three plays and screenplays, as well as the computer programs WritePro®, FictionMaster®, and FirstAid for Writers®.View all by Sol Stein
