Our second notable narrative for this month, “The Real Work,” delves into the legacy of magic and magicians, moving from its youngest apprentices to its veterans and the debate over its future. The New Yorker’s Adam Gopnik avoids the temptation to give away the tricks of the trade. Instead, he traces the roots of magic’s power (which leaves us “knowing it’s a trick but not which one it is”) and suggests that “friendships, flirtations, even love affairs depend, like magic tricks, on a constant exchange of incomplete but tantalizing information.”

Read “The Real Work,” by Adam Gopnik