The following version of this book was used to create the guide: Tóibín, Colm. The Magician. McClelland & Stewart, 2021.

At the start of the novel, Thomas Mann is still a young boy living in Lübeck with his mother Julia, his father, and his four siblings: Carla, Lula, Heinrich, and Viktor. Thomas knows he is gay from a young age and even writes poems to his crush at school. When Thomas’ father dies, Julia moves the family to Munch. She gets Thomas a job as a clerk but he quits to become a writer like his brother Heinrich. Heinrich and Thomas travel to Italy. Thomas writes a novel called Buddenbrooks based on the downfall of his family. When he returns to Munich, he earns some fame before getting engaged to the socialite Katia Pringsheim. Katia’s inseparable friendship with her twin brother Klaus inspires Thomas to write a story called “The Blood of the Walsungs.” Katia and Thomas get along excellently. She seems to sense that he is gay and does not mind.

They have six children together: Klaus, Erika, Michael, Golo, Monika, and Elisabeth. Meanwhile, Carla’s marriage dissipates as her career as an actress fails. She kills herself. Heinrich is grief stricken. In an effort to cheer Heinrich up, Katia and Thomas take him to Italy. While in Italy, Thomas writes a story based on the composer Mahler called “Death in Venice.” Katia goes to a sanatorium to improve her lung health. When Thomas visits her, he gets inspired to write The Magic Mountain. Katia returns just as war erupts in Germany. The Manns rarely leave home until the war is done. After the war, Klaus and Erika, now grown, travel the world and write. Thomas receives the Nobel Prize for Literature. While Thomas and Katia are in Switzerland, they hear of the Reichstag fire. They realize it is no longer safe for them to live in Germany. After a brief interlude of living in France, they decide to emigrate to the United States. They settle down in Princeton. Thomas’ friend Agnes Meyer, the wife of the owner of the Washington Post, helps secure visas for the rest of Thomas’ family.

After a few years of living in Princeton, they all move to Los Angeles, with the exception of Klaus and Monika, who live in New York. Thomas and Katia build a home in the Pacific Palisades. They lend Heinrich and his wife Nelly money. Heinrich feels guilty for leaving his ex-wife Mimi and daughter Goschi behind in Prague. Klaus becomes a drug addict and a financial burden on his parents. Elisabeth gets married and moves to Chicago. Monika survives a torpedoed ship but her husband does not. Soon after, she moves in with her parents. Thomas travels around the States giving lectures on the horrors of fascism. Nelly dies of an overdose, leaving Heinrich devastated. When the Germans finally surrender, the Mann family celebrates. Thomas publishes a bestselling novel, Doctor Faustus. Erika moves in with him and Katia to work as Thomas’ secretary. She and Klaus are no longer close on account of Klaus’ morphine addiction. Monika moves to Italy. Klaus attempts to kill himself when his lover leaves him. He moves with the same lover to France, where he finally does kill himself. Thomas and Katia are in Sweden at the time on account of Thomas’ lecture tour. They do not attend the funeral. Thomas visits the Eastern Zone in Germany and is celebrated there. Americans are hostile towards him when he returns. He and Katia decide to move to Switzerland because of this. Before his death, Thomas visits Lübeck. He recalls his childhood and siblings and wonders whether he still has some stories left in him.