Award-winning writer Paul Theroux tells a bewitching tale of circus magic and hypnotism which seems to hide a more sinister objective in his exquisite novel ''Millroy the Magician''. Fourteen-year-old Jilly Farina walks into the tent at the County Fair and finds her life transformed. Fixing her with her hypnotic gaze, ''Millroy the Magician'' performs astonishing miracles. When she is later magicked into his trailer and Millroy promised to train her as his assistant, Jilly feels safe for the first time her her short life. But Millroy is more than a mere stage-show magician. A vegetarian and health fanatic, a possessor of healing and hypnotic powers, Millroy is on a mission to change the eating habits og an entire nation. And through Jilly he has found the strength to preach his evangelical message. With Millroy's messianic fervour ever growing, Jilly begins to have doubts - but Millroy knows that without Jilly there will be no magic...''Brilliantly done. Theroux's best book for a very long time''. (Jonathan Raban, ''The Times Literary Supplement''). ''Fresh and unexpected...among Theroux's best''. (Philip Hensher, ''Guardian''). ''Magical''. (''Daily Telegraph'').American travel writer Paul Theroux is known for the rich descriptions of people and places that is often streaked with his distinctive sense of irony; his novels and collected short stories, ''My Other Life'', ''The Collected Stories'', ''My Secret History'', ''The Lower River'', ''The Stranger at the Palazzo d'Oro'', ''A Dead Hand'', ''The Elephanta Suite'', ''Saint Jack'', ''The Consul's File'', ''The Family Arsenal'', ''The Mosquito Coast'', and his works of non-fiction, including the iconic ''The Great Railway Bazaar'' are available from Penguin.