Sorcerer's Apprentice: An Incredible Journey into the World of India's Godmen

By Tahir Shah

Sorcerer’s Apprentice is the amazing story of Shah’s apprenticeship to one of India’s master conjurers, Hakim Feroze, and his initiation into the brotherhood of Indian godmen. Told with self-deprecating wit, panache, and an eye for the outlandish, it is an account of a magical journey across India. Feroze teaches the author the basics of his craft, such as sleights of hand, immersing his hands in boiling oil and lead, andAaron’s old trick from the Bibleturning a rod into a serpent.

To complete his training and prove himself, he is sent on a quest to discover the ways illusion is manifested in every corner of the subcontinent. Saddled with a hilarious sidekick and guide he calls the Trickster, Shah travels from Calcutta to Madras, from Bangalore to Bombay. Even as he recounts the most miraculous and bizarre feats of the sadhus, sages, sorcerers, avatars, fortune- tellers, healers, hypnotists, and humbugs whom he encounters, he revealsand admiresthe imagination and resourcefulness ordinary Indians deploy in order to survive. In this incredible book, Tahir Shah lifts the veil on the East’s most puzzling miracles and exposes a side of India that most never imagine exists.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Arcade Publishing
• Release date: Jul 1, 2011
• ISBN: 9781628721317

Reviews for Sorcerer's Apprentice

[idiotgirl · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Travel to see magic in India. Nonfiction. A wonderful book.

[solar8moon · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This book is very good. It is an extremely intriguing journey. The author really takes you there, on a magical journey across India. If you don't want to hear many of magic's secrets revealed then don't read this because he describes many "mystical" happenings in detail. Yet, strangely, this journey remains magical in many ways largely due to the great writing in this book.

[literate0ninja · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This book is a fine example of a modern travelogue. The author's talent for description and easy, readable style draw the reader in and make this a quick, engaging read. However, I must confess that I found myself identifying much more closely with the variety of side characters and bystanders than I did with Mr. Shah. He claims that he's had a lifelong interest in illusions, which was fostered by a visiting family friend from India when he was a young boy. However, he also says that he embarked upon this journey to learn the art of the illusionist specifically to amaze and confound his friends in England, not because he seriously wants to learn the art. Over and over again throughout the book, he refers to his training as a "course," apparently with the assumption that at the end of a couple months training he will have mastered the art form his master has devoted his life to, and return to his comfortable western lifestyle with some amazing new tricks to do at cocktail parties. Even when sent out by his master on a trip around the subcontinent, with the express instructions to observe the people making a living from illusions, he chooses to spend half his time chuckling to himself about the superstitious locals, and the other half self-righteously complaining about the money-making schemes of his young traveling companion and the horrible trials of his trip (the one that particularly springs to mind is when he traveled to Hyderabad for a miracle asthma cure, bypassed the thousands of people lined up to receive the cure, broke into the house of the family giving it away, and then complained when he received the very first dose because it involved swallowing fish, and he hated fish).So, in my opinion, read the book for the clever details about India and the lives of the people there, but try not to pay to much attention to the author.

[clurb · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

An original and entertaining tavel book detailing Shah's hilarious tutelege under Calcutta's master of illusion, and his subsequent 'journey of observation' around southern India. This is a book bursting with larger-than-life characters and lots of tantalising glimpses behind the scenes of India's tradition of conjuring and illusion. First rate.