Thursday 7 August 2014

FICTION REVIEW: The Confabulist - Steven Galloway

Release Date: 07/08/14
Publisher:  Atlantic Books

SYNOPSIS:

"How much of our lives is real and how much is an illusion? The world's gaze is focussed on the feats and daring of the amazing Harry Houdini, while not a soul is aware of down-and-out Martin Strauss. However, Strauss' fate is inextricably linked with the magician's, and as Houdini continues to rise, and Strauss continues to fall, their lives will converge in spectacular and devastating fashion...At once entertaining and suspenseful, historically rich and cleverly told, The Confabulist is an novel of magic and memory, truth and illusion, and the ways that love, hope, grief, and imagination can - for better or for worse - alter what we perceive and what we believe."


REVIEW:

OK, I know a little about Harry Houdini and whilst the story has been manipulated factually, as a reader I prefer the story to carry itself over accuracy and that’s what Steven Galloway has done well in this book. The story has an almost magical feel about it, the prose is sharp and when added to the culmination of rounded characters all round gave me a book that I had a lot of fun with and had a hard time putting down, which for me is the sign of cracking writing. Magical.

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