Antoine is a magician and a drunkard who hurts his devoted wife, Julie, again and again. While she is always ready to forgive him, events soon take their own dark turn. Antoine, a magician, plies his trade with extraordinary deftness and composure on stage, having worked all his life to establish himself as one of the best in his profession. After his performances, however, Antoine finds himself at the mercy of uncontrollable self-destructive urges. He drinks heavily and wanders the city, inducing panic in his utterly devoted wife, Julie. Julie's willingness to forgive him only makes the constant cycle of Antoine's cruel and chaotic behavior that much more painful, leaving him unable to uncover the greatest sleight of hand of all: Why is he so unhappy? The Magician is a powerful, affecting look into the psyche of a wounded, wounding person, offering a precise, almost scientific composite of human nature only Georges Simenon's distinctly cool and calculating prose can deliver.