Original title: Taikurin tyttäret
Author: Emmi Pesonen
Published: 2022
Publisher: Otava
Genre: Literary Fiction
Pages: 267
Reading material:
Egnlish sample & synopsis
A magical novel about two sisters who grow up in different families.
As children, Linda and her little sister Magda follow, in secret, how their father hypnotizes his customers. The girls listen to their most secret wishes, forbidden emotions, and dreamlike memories. The girls also act as statisticians and audience for their father’s magic tricks, and through it all, they love each other fiercely.
But their parents end up divorcing, and the two sisters are torn away from each other. Magda lives with her mother, drifts around in Helsinki, and ends up in a relationship with an adult man. Linda grows up with her father and gets the opportunity to try to reach her dreams of being an artist and to have her own family.
Years later, Linda’s daughter Indra finds her hypnotist grandfather’s box with contents that surprise her. Indra needs to face her memories: are they true or make-believe?
Emmi Pesonen’s The Magician’s Daughters takes a skillful deep dive into the essence of memories, the heavy weight of family, the complex cores of relationships. [–] Pesonen carries the story well, and the clear narration gives it space without extra flourishes. And the best thing is that The Magician’s Daughters stays in one’s mind for a long while.
Johanna Suominen, Savon Sanomat