"A love letter to the razzle-dazzle of ’30s San Francisco and the wonders of Treasure Island.”
—Kirkus Reviews
"Fascinated by the fragile beauty of San Francisco’s 1939 'Pageant of the Pacific'—and by the ironic message of world peace in a world at war—Christie Nelson has crafted a haunting story of love, deceit and reconciliation beneath the glamour and bravado of a half-forgotten world’s fair.”
—Richard Reinhardt, author of Treasure Island: San Francisco’s Exposition Years
“San Francisco’s last world’s fair is the setting for trans-Pacific intrigue and romance. Christie Nelson’s delightful novel brings the 1939 Golden Gate International Exposition vividly into readers’ imaginations. It’s the next best thing to a time machine—a sparkling visit to Treasure Island’s fabulous world’s fair.”
—Anne Schnoebelen, Historian and Vice-President of the Treasure Island Museum
"Nelson’s dazzling portrayal of Treasure Island’s world fair and the late 30’s San Francisco blends the fast pace of a thriller while transporting us back to an era of pre-WWII enthusiastic innocence. Cub reporter Lily shows her moxie through the rise of the grandest San Francisco fair, ever. Her complicated attraction to the shadowy Imperial Japanese diplomat, Tokido, parallels the country's deference to Japan, even as their violence loomed across the Pacific. Set against Lily’s conflicted relationship with the scholarly dwarf, Woodrow, and her own dodgy family, the novel revels with authenticity and historic figures."
—J. Macon King, Publisher of The Mill Valley Literary Review
"Christie Nelson’s tale is a loving valentine to the end of a San Franciscan incarnation. The two new bridges and WWII changed the City forever. Soon, ease of travel about the bay and the passage of hundreds of thousands of G.I.’s bound for the Pacific theater obliterated the small town feel that the story evokes. Told with a vivid attention to detail and populated with local characters, it illuminates the spectacle of the Fair, which was a last chromatic burst of fireworks, before the darkness set in."
—Will Maynez, Historian, Diego Rivera Mural Project, City College San Francisco
"Christie Nelson’s, Beautiful Illusion, is a breathtaking journey back in time to San Francisco, 1939 for the building of Treasure Island, the site of the world-class Golden Gate International Exposition, built in hopes of promoting peace among nations across an increasingly stormy Pacific. Beautiful Illusion follows a young reporter, Lily Nordby, who eagerly covers the Treasure Island story and in the process unwittingly unravels some secrets from her own past as she becomes tangled in espionage and romance. Beautifully written with rich details and stunning dialogue, Beautiful Illusion is a real treat! A fast-paced, intriguing read!"
—Michelle Cox, author
"With another horrific world war on the horizon, San Francisco throws the world's greatest party, co-mingling a smart and fetching newspaper reporter, a Japanese official with duplicitous intentions, a brilliant Mayan art scholar and dwarf determined to save her from herself, and the most dazzling and luminous setting in which a great story might ever be told. There's a big, aching dose of 'end of the innocence' throughout. Readers who love historical fiction steeped in a boiling part of realism should find it a journey well spent."
— James Dalessandro, author of 1906 and Citizen Jane
Beautiful Illusion
A Novel
