Great premise about a Jewish magician during the Nazi era. The structure juggles present day with the past with mixed results. There is a feeling that this is a translated novel. The writing style lacks a "voice". A flatness percolates through the novel that depresses your enjoyment of the plot. ( )

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This is the story of two people at two different periods of time. The first is a young Jewish man in Prague during the 1930s as Germany is making drastic and horrific changes to his world. The second is an American Jewish boy living in Southern California and struggling with the imminent divorce between his parents' marriage. The book switches back and forth between the two stories with darkness and impending horror in the older story and humor and childhood angst in the modern day story.

I liked the juxtaposition of the two stories with some clever intersections. The writing was very fluid and individual passages were powerful. But the overall flow, and especially the development of Moshe, seemed rushed and a bit unbelievable. This is still an impressive debut and I'm hoping to see more of this author. ( )

The Trick by Emanuel Bergmann is a novel, originally published in German, which brings together a Holocaust survivor and an American Jewish kid. The book was originally written in German, I read the English translation. Present day Los Angeles: Max Chon, a nine year old boy, sees his parents going through a tough, traumatizing divorce. Max comes up with a cunning plan of hiring the great magician Zabbatini to perform his “love spell” and bring his parents together. Prague – sometime in the 1930s: Moshe Goldenhirsch manages to go to the circus and see the half-moon man with his beautiful assistant. The son of a poor Rabbi, Moshe cannot possible tell his father he wants to join the magic circus, so he runs away to learn a new craft. Only that the Nazis, which seem to ruin everything they touch, also manage to ruin Moshe’s dreams and career no matter how much he tries to ignore them. The Trick by Emanuel Bergmann popped up on my screen as a recommendation several times before I took a look at it. I did notice the book though and kept the title in the back of my mind. It seemed like one I’d like, with Eastern European dark, sarcastic humor, great characters and a good story. So why didn’t I jump on it immediately? Good questions, when I’ll know the answer I’ll tell you. From the first pages I knew I’d like this book. The quirks of an old Jewish man, the imagination of a young boy that firmly believes he can change the world, and, last but not least, some great storytelling. The book, a bit sentimental but certainly charming, manages to tell a dark story with charisma and style. The author brings together a cynic, suicidal old man and a bright, hopeful boy in a story which is full of sweet, funny moments and a few horrific ones, albeit always with a wink and a nod. The story actually has three protagonists, Max Cohn, a kid in present day Los Angeles, Moshe Goldenhirsch who is a young Jewish man at the heyday of World War II, and again, Moshe as an elderly retiree in present day Los Angeles. The comparison of reading about the naive Moshe and the seasoned Moshe, how his life experiences has made him bitter, angry but not lose his humanity made a very interesting read. The author managed to make a somewhat predictable book, which was still a joy to read, surprising at the end introducing a whole new perspective in a nick of time (which ties nicely to a previous sub-plot). For more reviews and bookish posts please visit: http://www.ManOfLaBook.com ( )

If you read the description of this book, you may think that this is just another WWII story. Well, it is, but it sure is a good one and I am glad that I read it. The story alternates between 1934 and 2007. It is the story of love, loss and hope.

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