The Magician's Assistant

The Magician's Assistant by Ann Patchett

Sabine has recently lost her husband, Parsifal, after 6 months of marriage. He was a handsome and charming magician and she had been his assistant for 20 years. She had also been in love with him all those years. The problem was he was gay. After his partner Phan died, he married Sabine so she would be entitled to the estate he and his partner left behind.

After his death, Sabine learns he had been lying to her about his family for the entire time she has known him. After the will is read, Parsifal's family come to visit Sabine. When he left home he broke contact, so they are desperite for contact with what he had become. That means embracing Sabine. And Sabine is desperate to learn all she can about the secrets her husband had kept from her. So she journeys to his childhood home in Nebraska. Then she learns more secrets than she bargained on.