Samuel Thomas, a man of uncertain parentage, is a young magician who is convinced that he is destined for greatness in a far-off land. He travels across the world from India to London to the fog-shrouded streets of Boston in 1816, seeking honour, fame and fortune all the while hiding a secret. In this notorious year without a summer, with a season of unrelenting cold, Samuel arrive in a city alive with ambition, contradiction, and tension.

Enter Walter Mepham, in many ways a world away from Samuel, hailing from the upper echelons of Boston society, nursing a problem of his own. Proprietor of the New Boston Museum which is on the brink of bankruptcy, Walter is desperate to find ways to keep it open- and Samuel is the ideal fit for the first live addition to the collection.

The relationship between the two men quickly becomes complicated as Walter grows more and more fascinated and even obsessed with the young foreigner. As Samuel becomes subsumed within the museum and dependent on Walter, he must reckon with just how much he’s willing to give up to achieve success. The situation seems to perfect solution to each other’s problems. Abundantly detailed and vividly conjured, Hocus Pocus is a story about art, ambition, and desire, and captures the crackling energy and wonder of a bygone era through the eyes of a young performer.

Hocus Pocus by Brinda Charry, Simon & Schuster, $29