Disappearing act by James Moloney

Angus & Robertson, 2014. ISBN 9780732295752
(Age: 10+) Highly recommended. (Central character is aged 14). Themes: Magic and Illusion; Family; Truth and lies.This is a story with magic, illusion, the elixir of life, a contemporary teen, an imaginary foreign country with a sad history, love found and lost, family tragedy and the restoration of the memory and reputation of an infamous conjuror and illusionist. This combination could have been disastrous, but Moloney has conjured an amazingly readable and enjoyable storyline, that weaves a contemporary tale of a young teen with a passion for magic, with his discovered family history from a fictitious principality named Montilagus. The disaster of a historical magic trick that has gone wrong is revealed to the teen Matthew as he visits inner city Sydney. This sets Matthew off on his own pursuit of Magic, and eventually to Montilagus in the hope that he can repair the reputation of the Magician.
There are some very unbelievable aspects to this story; despite that, the essence of the story is that 'Only the heart knows that the magic is real'. The magic of the story is real!
Carolyn Hull