AustLit
Latest Issues
AbstractHistoryArchive Description
'Sometimes you need to disappear to find yourself.
To escape takes a special kind of magic. Terry Voulos is struggling. His marriage, his relationship with his son and his work prospects are shaky. He finds solace in the possibility of a new career as a magician, before a tragic accident sends him into exile, estranged from all that is familiar.
Hal Sargeson, a one-time magician and lifelong disciple of Harry Houdini, takes Terry under his wing. He begins to school Terry in the same arts of escape that the great Houdini used to thrill Australian audiences a hundred years earlier, but keeps to himself a knot that might have beaten even the master.
Terry is eventually brought to truths more disturbing than his present troubles, and to a moment when the healing power of magic is truly needed. Between Houdini′s example and Hal′s guidance, Terry learns much more than the routine illusions of the everyday magician.
Houdini's Flight is a moving and surprising story of finding meaning in the most unexpected places.' (From the publisher's website.)
Notes
-
Dedication: To Ann, Nicholas and Christopher with love and admiration.
-
Epigraph: In the Discovery of Witchcraft, published in 1584, Reginald Scot wrote that conjurers have a place so long as '...they abuse not the name of God nor make the people attribute onto them his power, but always acknowledge wherein the art consisteth, so as thereby other unlawful and impious arts may be by them the rather detected and betrayed.
Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of
Works about this Work
-
Take Three
2010
single work
review
— Appears in: Canberra Sunday Times , 18 July 2010; (p. 26)
— Review of Gunshot Road 2010 single work novel ; Houdini's Flight : Sometimes You Need to Disappear to Find Yourself 2010 single work novel ; Mosquito Creek 2010 single work novel -
Giving and Receiving
2010
single work
review
— Appears in: The Age , 10 July 2010; (p. 25)
— Review of Speak to Me 2010 single work novel ; Houdini's Flight : Sometimes You Need to Disappear to Find Yourself 2010 single work novel -
Fiction Books
2010
single work
review
— Appears in: The Courier-Mail , 3 - 4 July 2010; (p. 22)
— Review of Houdini's Flight : Sometimes You Need to Disappear to Find Yourself 2010 single work novel -
Heroes with a Magic Touch
2010
single work
review
— Appears in: The Sydney Morning Herald , 19-20 June 2010; (p. 34)
— Review of Houdini's Flight : Sometimes You Need to Disappear to Find Yourself 2010 single work novel -
Cover Notes
2010
single work
review
— Appears in: The Sunday Age , 20 June 2010; (p. 21)
— Review of A Few Right Thinking Men 2010 single work novel ; Houdini's Flight : Sometimes You Need to Disappear to Find Yourself 2010 single work novel
-
Untitled
2010
single work
review
— Appears in: Bookseller + Publisher Magazine , April vol. 89 no. 7 2010; (p. 35)
— Review of Houdini's Flight : Sometimes You Need to Disappear to Find Yourself 2010 single work novel -
Cheap Tricks by Masters of Illusion
2010
single work
review
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian , 29-30 May 2010; (p. 20)
— Review of Houdini's Flight : Sometimes You Need to Disappear to Find Yourself 2010 single work novel ; Indelible Ink 2010 single work novel -
Human Uplift
2010
single work
review
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , June no. 322 2010; (p. 28)
— Review of Houdini's Flight : Sometimes You Need to Disappear to Find Yourself 2010 single work novel -
Cover Notes
2010
single work
review
— Appears in: The Sunday Age , 20 June 2010; (p. 21)
— Review of A Few Right Thinking Men 2010 single work novel ; Houdini's Flight : Sometimes You Need to Disappear to Find Yourself 2010 single work novel -
Heroes with a Magic Touch
2010
single work
review
— Appears in: The Sydney Morning Herald , 19-20 June 2010; (p. 34)
— Review of Houdini's Flight : Sometimes You Need to Disappear to Find Yourself 2010 single work novel
