Yasha the magician - sword swallower fire eater acrobat and master of escape - is famed for his extraordinary Houdini-like skills. Half Jewish half Gentile a free thinker who slips easily between worlds Yasha has an observant wife a loyal assistant who travels with him and a woman in every town. Now though his exploits are catching up with him and he is tempted to make one final escape - from his marriage his homeland and the last tendrils of his father's religion. Set in Warsaw and the shtetls of the 1870s Isaac Bashevis Singer's second novel is a haunting psychological portrait of a man's flight from love.
