The confabulist - Steven Galloway

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.

Steven Galloway lives in British
Columbia and teaches creative writing at the University of British Columbia.
He is the author of The Cellist of Sarajevo.

A beautifully wrought novel about the grip of illusion and the way we tell ourselves stories to seek redemption, or forgiveness at the very least
The Washington Post

Galloway's story has a big trick up its sleeve, but his talent is no illusion.
More

Fabulous . . . A page-turner you'll want to read twice.
Reader's Digest

A brilliant novel, and one that virtually demands multiple readings to pick up all the subtleties (especially concerning the end of the book, and enough said about that).
Booklist