Best Seller
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Hardcover
$30.00
Published on Aug 05, 2025 | 320 Pages
• AN INSTANT USA TODAY BESTSELLER • AN INDIE NEXT LIST PICK • A LIBRARY READS PICK • The beloved author of Holes presents his first adult novel, a modern fantasy classic of forbidden love, a crumbling kingdom, and the unexpected magic all around us.
“After decades of children’s stories with adult intelligence, Sachar has given us an adult novel with a child’s heart”—Alix E. Harrow
“Funny, surprising, smart and weird . . . fully lives up to the high bar you’d expect from a great like Sachar.”—Associated Press
Long ago and far away (and somewhere south of France) lies the kingdom of Esquaveta. There, Princess Tullia is in nearly as much peril as her struggling kingdom. Esquaveta desperately needs to forge an alliance, and to that end, Tullia’s father has arranged a marriage between her and an odious prince. However, one month before the “wedding of the century,” Tullia falls in love with a lowly apprentice scribe.
The king turns to Anatole, his much-maligned magician. Seventeen years earlier, when Anatole first came to the castle, he was regarded as something of a prodigy. But after a long series of failures—the latest being an attempt to transform sand into gold—he has become the object of contempt and ridicule. The only one who still believes in him is the princess.
When the king orders Anatole to brew a potion that will ensure Tullia agrees to the wedding, Anatole is faced with an impossible choice. With one chance to save the marriage, the kingdom, and, of most importance to him, his reputation, will he betray the princess—or risk ruin?
“After decades of children’s stories with adult intelligence, Sachar has given us an adult novel with a child’s heart”—Alix E. Harrow
“Funny, surprising, smart and weird . . . fully lives up to the high bar you’d expect from a great like Sachar.”—Associated Press
Long ago and far away (and somewhere south of France) lies the kingdom of Esquaveta. There, Princess Tullia is in nearly as much peril as her struggling kingdom. Esquaveta desperately needs to forge an alliance, and to that end, Tullia’s father has arranged a marriage between her and an odious prince. However, one month before the “wedding of the century,” Tullia falls in love with a lowly apprentice scribe.
The king turns to Anatole, his much-maligned magician. Seventeen years earlier, when Anatole first came to the castle, he was regarded as something of a prodigy. But after a long series of failures—the latest being an attempt to transform sand into gold—he has become the object of contempt and ridicule. The only one who still believes in him is the princess.
When the king orders Anatole to brew a potion that will ensure Tullia agrees to the wedding, Anatole is faced with an impossible choice. With one chance to save the marriage, the kingdom, and, of most importance to him, his reputation, will he betray the princess—or risk ruin?
Author
Louis Sachar
LOUIS SACHAR is the author of the #1 New York Times bestseller Holes, which won the Newbery Medal and the National Book Award. His other books include Small Steps, winner of the Schneider Family Book Award; The Cardturner, a Publishers Weekly Best Book, Dogs Don’t Tell Jokes, The Boy Who Lost His Face, and There’s a Boy in the Girls’ Bathroom, which won more than twenty-four state children’s choice awards voted on exclusively by children. For younger readers he’s written the Marvin Redpost series and the Wayside School books. His first book for adults is The Magician of Tiger Castle.
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