From the beloved, award-winning, bestselling author of The Cellist of Sarajevo, a beautiful, suspense-filled novel that uses the life and sudden death of Harry Houdini to weave a magical tale of intrigue, love and illusion.
The Confabulist weaves together the life, loves and murder of the world's greatest magician, Harry Houdini, with the story of the man who killed him (twice): Martin Strauss, an everyday man whose fate was tied to the magician's in unforeseen ways. A cast of memorable characters spins around Houdini's celebrity-driven life, as they did in his time: from the Romanov family soon to be assassinated, to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and the powerful heads of Scotland Yard, and the Spiritualists who would use whoever they could to establish their religion. A brilliant novel about fame and ambition, reality and illusion, and the ways that love, grief and imagination can alter what we perceive and believe.
• "A stunning achievement.... At once a mystery, a historical epic and a thoughtful rumination on how one might live a life with purpose." National Post
• "A tale of romance, spiritualism, international intrigue and suspense." Winnipeg Free Press
• "A haunting exploration of sorrow and identity and illusion--and a beautifully calibrated full-length magic act." The Vancouver Sun
• "A fantastical new tale that interlaces history with imagination." The Globe and Mail
Steven Galloway is the author of Finnie Walsh, Ascension, and The Cellist of Sarajevo, which was a national bestseller; won the George Ryga Award for Social Awareness in Literature and the Ontario Library Association Evergreen Award; was a finalist for the CBA Libris Fiction Book of the Year and the Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize; and was longlisted for the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award and the Scotiabank Giller Prize.
From the beloved, award-winning, bestselling author of The Cellist of Sarajevo, a beautiful, suspense-filled novel that uses the life and sudden death of Harry Houdini to weave a magical tale of intrigue, love and illusion.
The Confabulist weaves together the life, loves and murder of the world's greatest magician, Harry Houdini, with the story of the man who killed him (twice): Martin Strauss, an everyday man whose fate was tied to the magician's in unforeseen ways. A cast of memorable characters spins around Houdini's celebrity-driven life, as they did in his time: from the Romanov family soon to be assassinated, to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and the powerful heads of Scotland Yard, and the Spiritualists who would use whoever they could to establish their religion. A brilliant novel about fame and ambition, reality and illusion, and the ways that love, grief and imagination can alter what we perceive and believe.
Praise
• "A stunning achievement.... At once a mystery, a historical epic and a thoughtful rumination on how one might live a life with purpose." National Post
• "A tale of romance, spiritualism, international intrigue and suspense." Winnipeg Free Press
• "A haunting exploration of sorrow and identity and illusion--and a beautifully calibrated full-length magic act." The Vancouver Sun
• "A fantastical new tale that interlaces history with imagination." The Globe and Mail
Steven Galloway is the author of Finnie Walsh, Ascension, and The Cellist of Sarajevo, which was a national bestseller; won the George Ryga Award for Social Awareness in Literature and the Ontario Library Association Evergreen Award; was a finalist for the CBA Libris Fiction Book of the Year and the Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize; and was longlisted for the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award and the Scotiabank Giller Prize.
