The Magician’s Daughter – a Memoir is a coming-of-age story set within the motion and light of a traveling magic show. Fourteen-year-old Katy has a craving for grandeur and an imaginary world in her bedroom. She is the daughter of Lee Grabel—a former professional magician stuck behind a desk in the suburbs—who yearns to rekindle the lost fame of his former magic show. When he decides to hit the road again in a grand bid to be a Las Vegas headliner, Katy is delighted to enter the leagues of show biz as his stage assistant. With a floating piano, vanishing horse, and other wonderments, the Grabel family and their crew go on tour across the Western states. Trouble ensues with wayward roadies, stage mishaps, and the increasing unhappiness of her mother, The Beautiful Helene, who is disenchanted with the magic show even as she runs it with military precision from her stage-right table. In cities far and wide, tensions mount and betrayal is in the air. Through error and misstep, Katy must find herself outside the show’s intoxicating spotlight. Meanwhile, the Grabels and their crew are getting closer to their booking at the Las Vegas Convention Center, where the fate of the show will be determined. Never before has a daughter of a great magician written with such candor and beauty about this backstage world, where all outlandish dreams are possible, and the magic continues after the show leaves town.
