His story sways beautifully between personal growth and regression, and he drops details that form the outside borders of a puzzle. He tells of his feud with Rupert Angier and the many years over which it occurs. Alfred Borden sets the stage with beautiful descriptions of magic and how it’s performed. These short segments bookend the crux of the novel: two large sections that outline each of the dueling magician’s lives in his own words. This delicately frames the narrative in a semi-modern day (the book was first published in 1995) mystery. You’ll be privy to many, but crucially not all, of the secrets within.Īlfred Borden and Rupert Angier each have a great-great-grandchild exploring the mysteries of their descendants.

To keep things spoiler-free, here’s my warning: if you’ve seen the movie prior to picking up the novel, you will start ahead of the game. But like the lives of magicians Alfred Borden and Rupert Angier, the film and the book versions of The Prestige remain inextricably intertwined. Normally I would disregard a book’s adaptation to any other media in my review. And so Christopher Priest’s novel of feuding stage magicians, famously developed for the silver screen in 2006, landed on my to-read pile. He went on, “One hundred percent worth it.” Then, with a flourish of legerdemain and misdirection, the book miraculously appeared in my bag while my fifteen dollars in cash (a budget set by my wife to limit my purchase to one book) materialized in the cash register. “Oh, if you like the movie you have to read the book.” The bookseller explained.

My journey with The Prestige fittingly began with a bit of magic trickery.

The Prestige by Christopher Priest