Summary

Brooklyn – High school seniors Quentin Coldwater, James, and Julia, all 17, walk though Brooklyn. Quentin is jealous of James and Julia holding hands, wanting to be alone with Julia instead. Quentin likes to do magic tricks. Quentin’s mother is a commercial illustrator, his father is a medical textbook editor, and his family is middle-middle class. Quentin is tall, thin, and slightly-hunched, but has a good GPA and a good life – yet he is unhappy. He thinks there must be more to life. He reflects on his favorite series of five books, Christopher Plover’s “Fillory and Further”, published in England in the 1930s, and about the lives of five Chatwin children in a land of magic as they holiday in Cornwall while their father is away fighting in World War I.

Quentin, James, and Julia arrive at an old house...