Archive · 27 Oct 2025
César Aira's 'The Famous Magician' Explores Fiction and Reality
The book 'The Famous Magician' by César Aira is about a writer who is offered magic powers.
The writer, who is over 60, is tired of writing and meets a magician named Ovando.
Ovando can turn things into gold, but the writer must give up writing and reading to learn magic.
The writer is torn: should he give up his life's work for magical power?
He asks his friends and wife for advice.
The story explores the lines between real life, the world of books, and the allure of magic.
In the end, it suggests the writer's work already creates magic.
The novella 'The Famous Magician' explores fiction and reality.
The story involves a writer offered magic by a man named Ovando.
Ovando transforms sugar into gold, but the writer must give up writing.
The writer consults friends and travels to Egypt for a literary event.
The book questions the relationship between an author's creativity and the real world.
- Who
- César Aira, the author; Ovando, a magician
- What
- Exploration of fiction, reality, and the choices between them.
- When
- 2013, when the novella was written
- Where
- Secondhand book market, Egypt
- Why
- To examine the power of an author in creating make-believe worlds.
- Author
- César Aira
- Translated By
- Chris Andrews
- Publisher
- New Directions Publishing
- Setting
- Secondhand book market; Egypt
- Main Theme
- Entanglements of fiction and reality