The Magicians - Lev Grossman [0]
Title Page
Copyright Page
Dedication
Epigraph
BOOK I
BROOKLYN
BRAKEBILLS
ELIOT
MAGIC
SNOW
THE MISSING BOY
THE PHYSICAL KIDS
THE BEAST
LOVELADY
MARIE BYRD LAND
ALICE
EMILY GREENSTREET
FIFTH YEAR
GRADUATION
BOOK II
MANHATTAN
PENNY’S STORY
THE NEITHERLANDS
UPSTATE
BOOK III
FILLORY
HUMBLEDRUM
EMBER’S TOMB
THE RAM
BOOK IV
THE RETREAT
THE WHITE STAG
KINGS AND QUEENS
ALSO BY LEV GROSSMAN
Codex
VIKING
Published by the Penguin Group
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First published in 2009 by Viking Penguin, a member of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.
Copyright © Lev Grossman, 2009
All rights reserved
PUBLISHER’S NOTE: This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
eISBN : 978-1-101-08228-7
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FOR LILY
I’ll break my staff,
Bury it certain fathoms in the earth,
And deeper than did ever plummet sound
I’ll drown my book.
—William Shakespeare, The Tempest
BOOK I
BROOKLYN
Quentin did a magic trick. Nobody noticed.
They picked their way along the cold, uneven sidewalk together: James, Julia, and Quentin. James and Julia held hands. That’s how things were now. The sidewalk wasn’t quite wide enough, so Quentin trailed after them, like a sulky child. He would rather have been alone with Julia, or just alone period, but you couldn’t have everything. Or at least the available evidence pointed overwhelmingly to that conclusion.
“Okay!” James said over his shoulder. “Q. Let’s talk strategy.”
James seemed to have a sixth sense for when Quentin was starting to feel sorry for himself. Quentin’s interview was in seven minutes. James was right after him.
“Nice firm handshake. Lots of eye contact. Then when he’s feeling comfortable, you hit him with a chair and I’ll break his password and e-mail Princeton.”
“Just be yourself, Q,” Julia said.
Her dark hair was pulled back in a wavy bunch. Somehow it made it worse that she was always so nice to him.
“How is that different from what I said?”
Quentin did the magic trick again. It was a very small trick, a basic one-handed sleight with a nickel. He did it in his coat pocket where nobody could see. He did it again, then he did it backward.
“I have one