The Confabulist PDF Download

Author: Steven Galloway
Publisher: Knopf Canada
ISBN: 0307400875
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 254

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Book Description
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.

Author: Steven Galloway
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 1101631430
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 240

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Book Description
From the author of The Cellist of Sarajevo, an exciting new novel that uses the life and sudden death of Harry Houdini to weave a tale of magic, intrigue, and illusion. What is real and what is an illusion? Can you trust your memory to provide an accurate record of what has happened in your life? The Confabulist is a clever , entertaining, and suspenseful narrative that weaves together the rise and fall of world-famous Harry Houdini with the surprising story of Martin Strauss, an unknown man whose fate seems forever tied to the magician’s in a way that will ultimately startle and amaze. It is at once a vivid portrait of an alluring, late-nineteenth/early-twentieth-century world; a front-row seat to a world-class magic show; and an unexpected love story. In the end, the book is a kind of magic trick in itself: there is much more to Martin than meets the eye. Historically rich and ingeniously told, this is a novel about 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 believe.

Author: Steven Galloway
Publisher: Vintage Canada
ISBN: 0307375404
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 299

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Book Description
The acclaimed author of Finnie Walsh turns from small-town hockey to the extraordinary intrigues of circus life during the heyday of the Big Top through the story of Salvo Ursari, undisputed master of the high wire. As the novel opens, it is the summer of 1976. Salvo is 66 years old and has decided he can never retire. Already famous thanks to his days in an American circus, he has made a living in recent times performing solo walks of extraordinary difficulty. And so he finds himself attempting to accomplish the most difficult feat of his career: to walk a wire strung between the twin towers of the World Trade Center, 1350 feet from the ground. Transylvania in 1919 is a place of poverty and persecution for the Rom people. Salvo follows his father to a village church, where the senior Ursari -- the only man who volunteers for the task -- is to climb the steeple to replace a large iron crucifix that had been removed for safe-keeping during the war. He restores the cross, but it is not properly attached and as they are leaving, it falls, killing a priest. When the villagers exact their revenge, Salvo’s parents are killed and he is separated from his brother and sister. Thus begins nearly a lifetime of being forced to flee from suspicion and misfortune that takes the reader from Europe to the US to British Columbia’s Fraser Valley and back to Manhattan. Ascension combines powerful storytelling -- including stories of the Romany people, poverty-stricken but resourceful, and rich in legend -- with great surprise and originality; Steven Galloway makes it clear why he is one of the hottest young writers in Canada today. Excerpt from Ascension “Once a newspaper man had asked him what it felt like to walk high above the crowd, with death looming beneath you and success a long way off on the other platform. Salvo had told the man that it was like being a bird, an eagle, but he knew that wasn’t true at all. He was a man, nothing more. Still, he was a man who dared do things other men watched and admired and were jealous of. He walked for these people as much as for anyone. But today he was walking only for himself. That was the difference with these solo walks. When he was among them, he was one of them, but here he is timeless, one man on a wire far above it all, in a separate place. He was not free, but he was as free as he would ever be.”

Author: Steven Galloway
Publisher: Vintage Canada
ISBN: 0307371654
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 274

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Book Description
This brilliant novel with universal resonance tells the story of three people trying to survive in a city rife with the extreme fear of desperate times, and of the sorrowing cellist who plays undaunted in their midst. One day a shell lands in a bread line and kills twenty-two people as the cellist watches from a window in his flat. He vows to sit in the hollow where the mortar fell and play Albinoni’s Adagio once a day for each of the twenty-two victims. The Adagio had been re-created from a fragment after the only extant score was firebombed in the Dresden Music Library, but the fact that it had been rebuilt by a different composer into something new and worthwhile gives the cellist hope. Meanwhile, Kenan steels himself for his weekly walk through the dangerous streets to collect water for his family on the other side of town, and Dragan, a man Kenan doesn’t know, tries to make his way towards the source of the free meal he knows is waiting. Both men are almost paralyzed with fear, uncertain when the next shot will land on the bridges or streets they must cross, unwilling to talk to their old friends of what life was once like before divisions were unleashed on their city. Then there is “Arrow,” the pseudonymous name of a gifted female sniper, who is asked to protect the cellist from a hidden shooter who is out to kill him as he plays his memorial to the victims. In this beautiful and unforgettable novel, Steven Galloway has taken an extraordinary, imaginative leap to create a story that speaks powerfully to the dignity and generosity of the human spirit under extraordinary duress.

Author: Steven Galloway
Publisher: Raincoast Books
ISBN: 9781551928357
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 182

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Book Description
"Finnie Walsh will forever remain in my daily thoughts, not only because of the shocking circumstances of his absurd demise, but because he managed to misunderstand what was truly important even though he was right about almost everything else." So begins Steven Galloway's critically acclaimed first novel. The story is told by Paul Woodward, Finnie's best friend and the only good child in a long line of delinquents. Hockey is one of the few things they have in common: Finnie's family is rich and snobbish, while Paul's father works the night shift at the local mill owned by Finnie's father. One fateful day, the boys noisily play hockey in the Woodwards' driveway, keeping Paul's father awake. This seemingly innocent activity triggers a shattering chain of events. Finnie Walsh has been compared to the work of John Irving, but Galloway's voice, most particularly his unforgettable portrait of the title character, is uniquely his own.

Author: Michael Redhill
Publisher: Harper Collins
ISBN: 1443409960
Category : Juvenile Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 215

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Book Description
FINALIST FOR THE SILVER BIRCH AWARD Dashiel Woolf should be ecstatic for the chance to meet his hero, the Great Houdini, not long before the famous magician’s untimely death in 1926. But Dash is far more concerned about getting home—because home is 85 years in the future. Sent back in time through a magic trick gone terribly wrong, Dash and his new friend, Walt—a known troublemaker—hatch a plan to return Dash to the present day. But if they are successful, they might prevent the Great Houdini from taking part in the event that ended his life, possibly changing history forever . . . “Genuinely entertaining in a way that few Canadian historical novels are. . . . It is a wild and fun romp and will keep almost any reader turning the pages to see how Dash will get home. Highly Recommended.” —CM MAGAZINE “The writing is smooth, the historic setting compelling, the magic engaging and the plot twists complex. . . . A tantalizing book that will appeal to devotees of Harry Potter, mystery lovers and Redhill fans who will thoroughly enjoy seeing his lighter side.” —NATIONAL READING CAMPAIGN “A lively, entertaining read, well paced and enjoyable, with nary a hint of weepiness.” —MONTREAL GAZETTE

Author: Jamie Harrison
Publisher: Catapult
ISBN: 1640092358
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 304

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Book Description
Set against the wild beauty of Montana as a woman attempts to heal from a devastating accident, this generational saga from the award-winning author of The Widow Nash is a heartfelt examination of how the deep bonds of family echo throughout our lives. For Polly, the small town of Livingston, Montana, is a land charmed by raw, natural beauty and a close network of family that extends back generations. But the summer of 2002 finds Polly at a crossroads: a recent head injury has scattered her perception of the present, bringing to the surface long-forgotten events. As Polly's many relatives arrive for a family reunion during the Fourth of July holiday, a beloved friend goes missing on the Yellowstone River. Search parties comb the river as carefully as Polly combs her mind, and over the course of one fateful week, Polly arrives at a deeper understanding of herself and her larger-than-life relatives. Weaving together the past and the present, from the shores of Long Island Sound to the landscape of Montana, The Center of Everything examines with profound insight the memories and touchstones that make up a life and what we must endure along the way.

Author: Lisa O'Donnell
Publisher: Harper Collins
ISBN: 0062209868
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 244

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Book Description
Today is Christmas Eve. Today is my birthday. Today I am fifteen. Today I buried my parents in the backyard. Neither of them were beloved. Marnie and her little sister, Nelly, are on their own now. Only they know what happened to their parents, Izzy and Gene, and they aren't telling. While life in Glasgow's Maryhill housing estate isn't grand, the girls do have each other. Besides, it's only a year until Marnie will be considered an adult and can legally take care of them both. As the New Year comes and goes, Lennie, the old man next door, realizes that his young neighbors are alone and need his help. Or does he need theirs? Lennie takes them in—feeds them, clothes them, protects them—and something like a family forms. But soon enough, the sisters' friends, their teachers, and the authorities start asking tougher questions. As one lie leads to another, dark secrets about the girls' family surface, creating complications that threaten to tear them apart. Written with fierce sympathy and beautiful precision, told in alternating voices, The Death of Bees is an enchanting, grimly comic tale of three lost souls who, unable to answer for themselves, can answer only for one another.

Author: Christian Jungersen
Publisher: Anchor
ISBN: 0345804627
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 354

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Book Description
Mia’s happy marriage is shattered when a brain tumor begins to change her husband’s personality beyond recognition. As Frederik becomes ever more a stranger before her eyes, the revelation that he has used his position as headmaster to mbezzle millions from his school's treasury turns Mia's private crisis into one that involves the community. But this disgraceful crime could become Mia’s salvation: working with a defense lawyer to build Frederik's case, they wrestle with the latest brain research, the question of free will—and their growing attraction to each other. Consumed by her new obsessions, Mia must reexamine everything she thought she knew about her marriage, and herself, as she too starts to change. . . .

Author: Anna Della Subin
Publisher: Metropolitan Books
ISBN: 1250296889
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 435

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Book Description
NAMED A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR BY ESQUIRE, THE IRISH TIMES AND THE TIMES LITERARY SUPPLEMENT A provocative history of men who were worshipped as gods that illuminates the connection between power and religion and the role of divinity in a secular age Ever since 1492, when Christopher Columbus made landfall in the New World and was hailed as a heavenly being, the accidental god has haunted the modern age. From Haile Selassie, acclaimed as the Living God in Jamaica, to Britain’s Prince Philip, who became the unlikely center of a new religion on a South Pacific island, men made divine—always men—have appeared on every continent. And because these deifications always emerge at moments of turbulence—civil wars, imperial conquest, revolutions—they have much to teach us. In a revelatory history spanning five centuries, a cast of surprising deities helps to shed light on the thorny questions of how our modern concept of “religion” was invented; why religion and politics are perpetually entangled in our supposedly secular age; and how the power to call someone divine has been used and abused by both oppressors and the oppressed. From nationalist uprisings in India to Nigerien spirit possession cults, Anna Della Subin explores how deification has been a means of defiance for colonized peoples. Conversely, we see how Columbus, Cortés, and other white explorers amplified stories of their godhood to justify their dominion over native peoples, setting into motion the currents of racism and exclusion that have plagued the New World ever since they touched its shores. At once deeply learned and delightfully antic, Accidental Gods offers an unusual keyhole through which to observe the creation of our modern world. It is that rare thing: a lyrical, entertaining work of ideas, one that marks the debut of a remarkable literary career.