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The Lost Magician by Piers Torday

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The Lost Magician

Publisher
Hachette Children's Group
Publish Date
5 March 2020
Run Time
7 hours 14 minutes
Format
Audiobook

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What to expect

'If you can imagine it, it exists ... somewhere.' A spellbinding adventure from the bestselling, award-winning author of The Last Wild trilogy.

1945. They have survived the Blitz, but when Simon, Patricia, Evelyn and Larry step through a mysterious library door, it is the beginning of their most dangerous adventure yet. They discover the magical world of Folio, where an enchanted kingdom of fairy knights, bears and tree gods is under threat from a sinister robot army.

The many stories of the Library are locked in eternal war, and the children's only hope is to find their creator - a magician who has been lost for centuries.

What they find will change not just their own lives, but the fate of the world, for ever ...

An ode to the world of Narnia, The Lost Magician is a classic in the making from one of the UK's most talented children's authors.

Praise for Piers Torday:
'The new master of books for children' - The Times

(P)2020 Hodder & Stoughton Limited

Critics Review

  • Torday pays tribute to reading, libraries and imagination in one of the most clever and ambitious children's books you'll read this year

    The Bookseller

  • An entrancing story that champions imagination at a time when we most need it

    Abi Elphinstone

  • You'll be on the edge of your seat ... an original, and imaginative war cry for the importance of reading and the magic of libraries

    M.G. Leonard

  • Thrilling, epic, wise. Truly a book for our times. (With extra rainbow unicorns!)

    Natasha Farrant, author of The Children of Castle Rock

See more reviews
  • Gripping, original and memorable

    Francesca Simon, on The Last Wild trilogy

  • Piers Torday...is the new master of books for children who like magic and modernity with their lust for adventure.

    The Times, on There May Be a Castle

  • Piers Torday continues to demonstrate that he is one of the best writers for children working today

    The Guardian, on There May Be a Castle

  • An excellent, punchy adventure tale with vivid characters and an impassioned eco message

    The Financial Times on The Last Wild trilogy

  • A whimsical yet thoughtful tale that brings to mind the smarts and silliness of Roald Dahl and Norton Juster

    New York Post, on The Last Wild trilogy

  • Wildly inventive, moving and gripping ... full of suspense without ever sacrificing warmth

    The Guardian on The Last Wild trilogy

  • This beautiful homage to Narnia sees renowned children's writer Torday explore what it is to be a reader and the power of books and libraries, as well as the imagination. Fantastical but with real heart, this immersive story is sure to become a firm favourite.

    Book Trust

  • A phenomenal adventure story

    The Independent

  • It's 1945 and four children step through a magical door into the world of Folio - a nod to CS Lewis - where characters from stories are locked in a battle. Only the magician who created them can help. Piers Torday (The Last Wild, There May Be A Castle) has an unrelenting imagination, cleverly mixing nostalgia and modernity. After reading this you will never look at a bookmark in the same way.

    The Times

  • The first of a trilogy, this is masterly storytelling, both entertaining and profound.

    The Sunday Times

  • Piers Torday's The Lost Magician (Quer-cus, £12.99, 10+) is artistically daring, channelling The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe in having four children survive the Blitz to step into an enchanted library where magical stories are at war. It is as much about storytelling as about creating an enjoyable story, yet such is Torday's talent that when Evie tells the robotic Jana that "You don't know me... the real me, inside my head", you want to cheer.

    The New Statesman

  • a wonderful tribute to Narnia, CS Lewis and the magic of books and reading

    S Magazine

  • a lustrously lovely ode to libraries, to imagination, and to the magic of a wonderful story

    I Newspaper

  • In recent years, Piers Torday has emerged as a major new voice; his 2018 offering, The Lost Magician (Hachette), rewrote The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe as a tale of war-weary siblings entering a parallel world. There's a conflagration raging there too, between fantastical storybook characters and the harbingers of cool, hard logic - a false binary that has to be resolved, if some truly annihilating forces are to be stopped. Cue the "never reads" - the ghoulish ranks of the badly informed, the unimaginative and the incurious. Remind anyone of any other worlds?

    The Guardian

  • A particularly good novel to give an eager reader is The Lost Magician by Piers Torday. (Hachette) Narnia gets a modern update in this thoughtful reworking of the classic. Four siblings are drawn into the mysterious kingdom of Folio, where its inhabitants are locked in perpetual war

    Ham & High Newspaper

User Reviews

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Details

Author
Piers Torday
Narrator
Colleen Prendergast
Duration
7 hours 14 minutes
Release Date
5 March 2020
ISBN
9781786541178
Format
Audiobook
Publisher
Hachette Children's Group
Genre
Children’s / Teenage fiction: Action and adventure stories, Children’s / Teenage social topics: War and conflict issues, Children’s / Teenage fiction: Fantasy

Synopsis

'If you can imagine it, it exists ... somewhere.' A spellbinding adventure from the bestselling, award-winning author of The Last Wild trilogy. 1945. They have survived the Blitz, but when Simon, Patricia, Evelyn and Larry step through a mysterious library door, it is the beginning of their most dangerous adventure yet. They discover the magical world of Folio, where an enchanted kingdom of fairy knights, bears and tree gods is under threat from a sinister robot army. The many stories of the Library are locked in eternal war, and the children's only hope is to find their creator - a magician who has been lost for centuries. What they find will change not just their own lives, but the fate of the world, for ever ...An ode to the world of Narnia, The Lost Magician is a classic in the making from one of the UK's most talented children's authors. Praise for Piers Torday:'The new master of books for children' - The Times(P)2020 Hodder & Stoughton Limited

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