The Magician of Lublin by Isaac Bashevis Singer

He also discovers that Zeftel has become Herman's lover. Later that day, Magda commits suicide after she and Yasha have an argument about his affairs. He confesses to Emilia that he was the thief, and they break up. He later visits Emilia, and whilst there hears about the attempted robbery at Zaruski's home. He is seen by a policeman and runs away, eventually hiding in a synagogue where he joins the morning prayers. He then flees, and hurts his foot as he jumps from the balcony. He breaks in without waking up Zaruski, but is unable to pick the lock of the safe. On his way back home, he makes a spur of the moment decision to rob the home of a rich neighbour of Emilia's named Zaruski, believing that his expertise in lock picking will help him. Yasha suspects that Herman is a pimp, and he accompanies Zeftel back to her new home, and spends much of the night talking and drinking with them. Zeftel visits him in Warsaw and tells him that she has moved there and is staying with a man named Herman who has promised her work in Argentina. However, neither he nor Emilia has the money to make their plans possible. He would need to convert to Christianity, and divorce Esther to make the marriage possible. During this visit, he proposes to Emilia, and they agree to move to Italy.

When they arrive at Warsaw, Yasha also visits Emilia and her daughter Halina. Yasha and Magda travel to Warsaw to perform on the stage. He has affairs with his assistant Magda, with a young Jewish woman in Piaski named Zeftel and with a middle class Catholic widow in Warsaw named Emilia. He is Jewish, but not very devout, and married to Esther. The main character Yasha Mazur is a magician from Lublin, who travels around Poland to perform before audiences. The story is set in the mid-1880s in Russian-ruled Poland. The book was republished by Pocket Penguins in 2016. In 1971, the book was published in Yiddish by Hamenorah.

Though originally written in Yiddish, it was first published in English in 1960 in the United States by Noonday, and in 1961 in the United Kingdom by Secker & Warburg. The Magician of Lublin ( Yiddish: דער קונצנמאַכער פֿון לובלין, romanized: Der Kuntsnmakher fun Lublin) is a novel by Nobel Laureate Isaac Bashevis Singer.

The Magician of Lublin by Isaac Bashevis Singer