The Magic Circle: A Novel

Three smart young women — the scholarly Ruth, her poet roommate Lucy, and their exotic, provocative neighbor Anna — are obsessed with games of all kinds. They’ve devoted themselves to both the academic study of play and the design of games based on the secret history of the neighborhood around Columbia University, from Grant’s Tomb to the former insane asylum that once stood where the campus is now. When Anna’s mysterious brother Anders gets involved and introduces live-action role-playing based on classic Greek tragedy, theory goes into practice and the stakes are raised. Told in a variety of formats — including Gchat and blog posts — that bring the fraught drama of Euripides screaming into the twenty-first century, The Magic Circle is an intellectual thriller like no other.

About the Author :
Jenny Davidson is a professor of English at Columbia University. She is the author of the novel Heredity (2003); two YA novels, The Explosionist (2008) and Invisible Things (2010); and several academic books. She is the recipient of a Guggenheim fellowship and blogs at Light Reading (jennydavidson.blogspot.com).

Review :
“Davidson deftly orchestrates a startling collision between the classical and the contemporary, reality and play.” —Kirkus “There’s an adventurous imagination at play and Davidson’s formidable intelligence is like an electric current running through the pages of this compendious book.” —Los Angeles Times “Jenny Davidson’s The Magic Circle is an intriguing and rewarding novel that follows the friendship and immersion of three smart young women in live action role playing games. Comparisons to the work of Muriel Spark and Donna Tartt (Megan Abbott called the book A Secret History as directed by Whit Stillman) are wholly deserved” —LargeHeartedBoy “Jenny Davidson has created nothing less than an intellectually captivating story with The Magic Circle…I found this novel to be absolutely intriguing from start to finish.” —The Book Barista “The Magic Circle is elegant, brutally smart, and utterly absorbing—A Secret History as directed by Whit Stillman...A delirious, hypnotic page-turner about the ruthless games female friends play with, and on, each other.” —Megan Abbott, author of Dare Me “For many years, those in search of an erudite, smart, sassy, vibrantly intelligent mystery blog went to Jenny Davidson, and she wrote too of deeply intellectual matters on an easy in yer face tone. She rocked. And now…The novel. Bliss. Imagine Iris Murdoch, channeling Janet Evanovich and cribbing the sheer art of P.D. James’s gripping storytelling, and you’d have the tone and flavour of Davidson’s novel. It’s that book, and oh so beautifully readable.” —Ken Bruen, author of The Hackman Blues and The Guards “Edgy and erudite, sexy and engrossing: This is one seriously fun book.” —Emily Barton, author of Brookland “Like a novel by a 21st-century Muriel Spark, this book about smart women, dangerous games, and the roles we play in life enthralled me. I loved it.” —Sara Gran, author of Claire Dewitt and the City of the Dead and Dope