The Confabulist

Magic and madness collide in this remarkable novel about the power of perception.

Harry Houdini was once the most famous person on the planet. He is the man who can make the impossible seem real. So when, on the most extraordinary night of his life, Martin Strauss accidentally kills the great magician, his own life is turned upside down. He loses his home, the woman he loves and every hope he once had. Now his doctor has informed him he is losing his mind too, and Martin decides it is time to set the record straight with Houdini's daughter, Alice.

But this record will not straighten easily. A lifetime of sleight of hand takes some explaining...

Life and death, memory and forgetting, the thrill of escape: Steven Galloway has unleashed the power of a luminous imagination in this dazzling new novel.

Steven Galloway was born in Vancouver in 1975. He is the author of three prestigious novels including The Cellist of Sarajevo, which was longlisted for the 2012 IMPAC Dublin literary Award and has been translated into numerous languages.

'Fascinating...A brilliant novel, and one that virtually demands multiple readings to pick up all the subtleties...' Booklist