Lev Grossman

American novelist and critic, author of the Magicians trilogy, which reimagines the Narnia and Harry Potter archetypes for disillusioned adults.

Lev Grossman is an American novelist and former book critic for Time magazine whose Magicians trilogy has become one of the most discussed fantasy series of the twenty-first century. Beginning with The Magicians in 2009, the series follows Quentin Coldwater, a brilliant and deeply unhappy teenager who discovers that a magical school and the Narnia-like fantasy world from his favorite childhood books are both real — and far more complicated and dangerous than he ever imagined.

What distinguishes Grossman’s work is its unflinching engagement with disappointment and depression alongside its genuine sense of wonder. The Magicians owes obvious debts to C. S. Lewis and J. K. Rowling, but it deliberately subverts their optimism: magic doesn’t make Quentin happy, Fillory is dangerous and morally ambiguous, and the characters struggle with addiction, aimlessness, and the particular misery of being gifted without knowing what to do with the gift.

The series was adapted into a popular television show on Syfy. Grossman spent years as one of America’s most influential book critics before and during his fiction writing career, which gave his work an unusual literary self-consciousness — he is always aware of the traditions he is engaging with and the expectations he is either fulfilling or subverting. For readers who loved fantasy as children and want something that speaks to adult disenchantment, the Magicians trilogy is essential.