Hocus Pocus
A Novel
Will be published approx. on 11. August 2026
336 pages
E-Book
978-1-6680-0460-9 (ISBN)
Description
A young magician travels across the world seeking fame and fortune all the while hiding a secret, in a novel based on the renowned, real-life Indian stage magicians performing in the United States in the 1800s.
Samuel Thomas, a man of uncertain parentage, is a young magician convinced that he is destined for greatness in a far-off land. Seeking honor and acclaim, he journeys across the globe?from India to London to the fog-shrouded streets of Boston in 1816, the infamous Year Without a Summer. In this season of unrelenting cold, Samuel arrives in a city alive with ambition, contradiction, and tension.
Enter Walter Mepham: in some ways a world away from Samuel, hailing from the upper echelons of Boston society, but also nursing a problem of his own. Proprietor of the New Boston Museum which is on the brink of bankruptcy, Walter is desperate to find ways to keep it open?and Samuel is the ideal fit for the first live addition to the collection.
While the perfect solution to each other's problems, the relationship between the two men quickly becomes complicated as Walter grows more and more fascinated, and even obsessed, with the young foreigner. As Samuel becomes subsumed within the museum and dependent on Walter, he must reckon with just how much he's willing to give up to achieve success. Richly detailed and vividly conjured, Hocus Pocus is a story about art, ambition, and desire, and captures the crackling energy and wonder of a bygone era through the eyes of a young performer.
Samuel Thomas, a man of uncertain parentage, is a young magician convinced that he is destined for greatness in a far-off land. Seeking honor and acclaim, he journeys across the globe?from India to London to the fog-shrouded streets of Boston in 1816, the infamous Year Without a Summer. In this season of unrelenting cold, Samuel arrives in a city alive with ambition, contradiction, and tension.
Enter Walter Mepham: in some ways a world away from Samuel, hailing from the upper echelons of Boston society, but also nursing a problem of his own. Proprietor of the New Boston Museum which is on the brink of bankruptcy, Walter is desperate to find ways to keep it open?and Samuel is the ideal fit for the first live addition to the collection.
While the perfect solution to each other's problems, the relationship between the two men quickly becomes complicated as Walter grows more and more fascinated, and even obsessed, with the young foreigner. As Samuel becomes subsumed within the museum and dependent on Walter, he must reckon with just how much he's willing to give up to achieve success. Richly detailed and vividly conjured, Hocus Pocus is a story about art, ambition, and desire, and captures the crackling energy and wonder of a bygone era through the eyes of a young performer.
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Brinda Charry came to the United States from India as a graduate student in 1999 and has been living here since. The East Indian, her first work of fiction published in the United States was awarded the Society of American Historians Prize (formerly the James Fenimore Cooper Prize) for Historical Fiction, and was shortlisted and longlisted for several other awards and recognitions. She is also a specialist in English literature and has published a number of books and articles in that field. She currently lives in Keene, New Hampshire, with her husband and dogs.
