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As If by Magic
Nothing is as it seems in the sinuous tales of Brazilian master Edgard Telles Ribeiro
A son embarks on a journey involving a disappearing suitcase, secret police, and a strange letter, while pursuing a father who appears to have fallen victim to Alzheimer’s disease. A man inherits a deserted island and is drawn into the mysterious, possibly deadly affairs of a strange couple on a sailboat. A gold miner in a remote Amazon outpost escapes from a murderous foreman by building an improbable machine. A writer chases the evasive opening sentence of his novel while locked down in his Rio de Janeiro apartment with his wife, until she usurps the narrative.
In the four tales that comprise As If by Magic, Edgard Telles Ribeiro invites us into labyrinthine worlds where what we perceive is only the beginning of the story.
A son embarks on a journey involving a disappearing suitcase, secret police, and a strange letter, while pursuing a father who appears to have fallen victim to Alzheimer’s disease. A man inherits a deserted island and is drawn into the mysterious, possibly deadly affairs of a strange couple on a sailboat. A gold miner in a remote Amazon outpost escapes from a murderous foreman by building an improbable machine. A writer chases the evasive opening sentence of his novel while locked down in his Rio de Janeiro apartment with his wife, until she usurps the narrative.
In the four tales that comprise As If by Magic, Edgard Telles Ribeiro invites us into labyrinthine worlds where what we perceive is only the beginning of the story.
173 pages, Kindle Edition
Published January 13, 2026
2 people are currently reading
35 people want to read
About the author
Edgard Telles Ribeiro
20 books12 followersEscritor e diplomata, Edgard Telles Ribeiro foi tambem jornalista, cineasta e professor de cinema. Seu romance de estreia, O criado-mudo, foi publicado nos Estados Unidos, Alemanha, Holanda e Espanha. Um de seus contos (do livro No coracao da floresta) foi incluido em antologia sobre literatura latino-americana contemporanea lancada nos EUA pela Plume/Penguin Books. O romance Olho de rei (Record, 2005) recebeu o Premio da Academia Brasileira de Letras para Melhor Obra de Ficcao 2006 (categoria romance, teatro e contos). Seu livro de contos, Historias mirabolantes de amores clandestinos (Record, 2004), ficou em segundo lugar no Premio Jabuti.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
July 2, 2025
"As if by Magic", by Edgard Telles Ribeiro, and beautifully translated from the Portuguese by Kim M. Hastings and Margaret A. Neves, is composed of three short stories and a novella.
The three short stories, one a bit Kafka-sequel about a man searching for his father who may have Alzheimer’s, one about a man on an island observing a couple on their yacht wondering about possibly deadly encounters, and one about a man named Skinny Pedro and how he managed to save some stranded gold miners.
These stories were well-paced, entertaining, and lively!
The novella is called "The Magic Eye" which refers to that "eye" in the front door from which one may view whoever is at the door.
It is a bit of a "meta" story about a writer trying to write while being quarantined with his wife. They are an older couple, and they have been cooped up together for eight months and things are getting a bit fractious, and their existence has become boring.
The writer attempts to start a new novel, he writes scenes that seem to start and stop with little cohesion, until one day his wife comes to tell him of a dream she had and suddenly the writer begins to weave a dream-lie/surreal narrative, and he splits off and becomes one of his characters.
The lines between imagination and reality blur and both the writing by the character of the writer, as well as that of our author becomes complicated. Does he have dementia? Is he crazy?
The beautiful writing somewhat makes up for the confusing “plot”.
The three short stories, one a bit Kafka-sequel about a man searching for his father who may have Alzheimer’s, one about a man on an island observing a couple on their yacht wondering about possibly deadly encounters, and one about a man named Skinny Pedro and how he managed to save some stranded gold miners.
These stories were well-paced, entertaining, and lively!
The novella is called "The Magic Eye" which refers to that "eye" in the front door from which one may view whoever is at the door.
It is a bit of a "meta" story about a writer trying to write while being quarantined with his wife. They are an older couple, and they have been cooped up together for eight months and things are getting a bit fractious, and their existence has become boring.
The writer attempts to start a new novel, he writes scenes that seem to start and stop with little cohesion, until one day his wife comes to tell him of a dream she had and suddenly the writer begins to weave a dream-lie/surreal narrative, and he splits off and becomes one of his characters.
The lines between imagination and reality blur and both the writing by the character of the writer, as well as that of our author becomes complicated. Does he have dementia? Is he crazy?
The beautiful writing somewhat makes up for the confusing “plot”.
February 3, 2026
The man sits at his desk once again in search of his sentence, like a ship seeking a lighthouse in the dead of night. He knows he has a story to tell--and that, somewhere, a sentence awaits. This certainty is all he needs.
The three short stories and the novella that make up this volume all play with reality. Sometimes the ways in which the unknowable sneaks in is odd and unsettling, as when an elderly man with Alzheimers disappears from his home, only to reappear a few hours later claiming to have gone on a long journey. All this can be dismissed as the delusions of that pernicious disease, yet the contents of his suitcase are impossible. The novella, The Magic Eye, concerns a writer stuck in is apartment with his wife during covid, and is both ordinary and strange. I really liked these stories and will be looking for more by this author.
The three short stories and the novella that make up this volume all play with reality. Sometimes the ways in which the unknowable sneaks in is odd and unsettling, as when an elderly man with Alzheimers disappears from his home, only to reappear a few hours later claiming to have gone on a long journey. All this can be dismissed as the delusions of that pernicious disease, yet the contents of his suitcase are impossible. The novella, The Magic Eye, concerns a writer stuck in is apartment with his wife during covid, and is both ordinary and strange. I really liked these stories and will be looking for more by this author.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews