Together with other disillusioned illusionists, the titular magician exposes the dark underside of art, intent on unveiling life’s elegant deception In following the tales of these magicians of madness, Diabelli offers unique confessional accounts of linguistic self-destruction. Chief among them is prestidigitator Grazio Diabelli, who refuses an invitation to perform and instead discourses on the history of escapology as he contemplates his own final and permanent disappearing act. Also waiting in the wings is August Stramm, "pianistic abortion" applying for the post of orchestra minion despite being hard of hearing; and Anatol Zentgraf, private scholar and maniacal reader who is the alleged epicenter of an earthquake. Added to this first English edition is Burger’s tale "The Laughter Artist," an account of a nameless professional artist of cachinnation whose mother’s backstage visit induces a fatal culmination of his art. Hermann Burger (1942–89) was a Swiss author, critic and professor. He first achieved fame with his novel Schilten, the story of a mad village schoolteacher who teaches his students to prepare for death. At the end of his life, he was working on the autobiographical tetralogy Brenner, one of the high points of 20th-century German prose.

"'Diabelli' deals in tortured artists, though it would be reductive to leave it at that. Burger’s writing is in no way romantic or conceited. He is too technical, too obsessed, for that. The uncharted territory that he tracks is worth the price of admission alone." - The Times Literary Supplement