This Book was such a delight that it made me want to downgrade all the other books I’ve read lately.  It also made me want to hug my loved ones as close to me as possible.  “Parsifal is dead.”  That’s the first sentence of the novel, and it sets everything in motion.  The book is about his widow, Sabine, who also served as Parsifal’s assistant in his magic acts, including an appearance on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson and performances in Las Vegas.  Parsifal, however, was gay, and was preceded in death by his true love, Phan.  For estate purposes, Parsifal marries Sabine after Phan’s death.  If this sounds like an odd triangle, it really is not.  Sabine was in love with Parsifal but understood that her feelings would never be reciprocated, although the two were extremely close.  After Parsifal’s death, Sabine discovers that almost everything she knew about Parsifal’s childhood is a lie.  This is a story of grief and love and family struggles and a whole lot more, including a few rather scary moments.  An aura of sadness hangs over the book but in a beautiful way rather than a depressing or melodramatic way, as Sabine immerses herself in Parsifal’s past, by way of the family she never knew he had.  There is also one scene in the book that made me laugh so hard that it brought tears to my eyes.  A particularly turbulent commuter flight has a pilot coming out of the cockpit to reprimand a panicked flight attendant.  I know this may not sound like a funny event, but I could hardly read this passage aloud to my husband without cracking up.