The Prestige

A bitter feud between two prestidigitators at the dawn of the 20th century sets the stage for this World Fantasy Award-winning novel. After rising stage magician Alfred Borden exposes magician/spiritualist Rupert Angier's trickery during a séance, a fierce and ugly rivalry springs up between the two, with each seeking to expose and copy the other's illusions in the most public and embarrassing manner possible. But Angier simply cannot penetrate the secret to Borden's most spectacular illusion, the New Transported Man, in which Borden seems to instantaneously disappear from one location and reappear in another. In response, Angier designs his own version of the trick, based on a separate secret whose sinister implications will reach into the present day and affect the descendants of each man.