The Illusionist [Paperback]

When charming magician Dean Lily shows up in a decaying small town, he wins the hearts of the women of the town—but what they don't know is that Dean has more secrets and tricks than a simple sleight of hand.

The Illusionistis the sensuous and haunting tale of Dean Lily, an amateur magician whose arrival in Sparta, New York, upsets the landscape of this small town on the wane. Dean, a master of the sleight of hand, is also a master of seduction and charm—which becomes apparent as he woos and wins the hearts of more than one of Sparta's female citizens.

But the enigmatic newcomer has more to hide than the tricks of his trade—his mysterious identity as a transgendered person, and his closely guarded privacy arouse suspicion and jealousy—and while he cures Sparta of its midwinter ennui, he also unleashes a destructive force that rocks the foundations of this town to its core. Inspired in part by a true story,The Illusionistis a fiercely erotic novel that thwarts conventions of gender and love.Dinitia Smithis the author of two previous novels,Hard RainandRemember This.She is an Emmy Award-winning filmmaker and has taught creative writing at Columbia University. She is now a national correspondent for culture atThe New York Timesand lives in New York City.Chapter 1
CHRISSIE
I first saw him one wild October night at the Wooden Nickel bar high up on the headland overlooking the river on Old Route 27. In Sparta in late October the wind sweeps in off the river, it can make your eyes tear, it can make you weep. Across the river, the sky over the palisades was dense with cumulus clouds, thick and silvery and shot through with light, and the leaves in the trees sang and rustled and shook in the wind. Down below, the great river glided by, like a sheet of gleaming metal two miles wide.
When I walked out of the cold into the Wooden Nickel that night, I spotted a young man I'd neló!