On his first morning at the Cannes film festival, movie critic Marcel Klein is starstruck – not by an actor, but by Héloïse, a beautiful woman with a troubling secret. Each time they meet – at press events, parties and premieres – they test each other's limits. But when Marcel's countless lies threaten to catch up with him, the two of them get in a car and leave Cannes behind, hoping to outrun the past. A deeply moving and fast-paced novel about love and lies.

They meet in Los Angeles: a small boy who believes in everything and an old man who believes in nothing any more. What could possibly bring these two together other than the course of world history, which has the cruellest and most bewildering tricks up its sleeve? Prague, 1934: The fifteen-year-old rabbi’s son Moshe Goldenhirsch marvels at the legendary circus magician known as the ›Half-Moon Man‹ and his delightful assistant – he falls head over heels in love, twice over. Moshe runs away from home to join the circus, which is slowly making its way to Germany. Los Angeles, 2007: Ten-year-old Max Cohn climbs out of his bedroom window to find the Great Zabbatini, a jaded old magician. The boy is convinced – only magic can bring his estranged parents back together before divorce strikes. A moving and absurdly funny story spanning eras and continents, a novel about the fragility of life and the will to let magic do its work.