What readers think of The Magician, plus links to write your own review.

Colm Toibin's "The Magician", may target a more intelligent or informed audience than yours truly. It takes kernels of truth from the life of German novelist Thomas Mann and tells fictionalized tales from 1881-1950.

For many reasons, Germany was a tumultuous place to be at several times during this day. Few speak as much about their role in World War I, for example, but Toibin does not gloss over the experience.
Mann's family is huge, which makes character development problematic as we often talk about them and forget what they have done. Three major characters also bear the name of Klaus and you may get lost.
Still, I admire the way Toibin explores the Hitler Era in ways that would burden homosexuals, writers, and refugees. When you flee Hitler's Germany, how could you maintain your heritage while seeking safer pastures?

Those with greater knowledge of Mann's work and scholars who study German history would have more to say. Still, Toibin succeeds in finding out what Mann would have said, done, and felt. What a setting this must have been.