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'In 1910 the famed escapologist Harry Houdini made an ill-fated attempt to become the first person to fly an aircraft over Australian soil--yet while Houdini is remembered today for his failure, the true record-holder has been forgotten. This quirk of history becomes the focus for the obsessions of Bernard Cripp, world-weary scion of an ailing family circus, who tries to unearth every detail of Houdini's flight in order to re-enact it. But why is Bernard so single-minded? As his manic testimony unspools, his story takes on a darker tone: he is, in fact, in mourning for a wife and child he has lost to the skies, and paralysed by the uncertainty surrounding their deaths. If his efforts to re-create history cannot bring back his loved ones, can they at least bring him peace as he struggles to live with his loss?
'In Waypoints, his outlandish début novel, Adam Ouston embarks on a journey to reclaim a lost sense of awe and wonder from subjects as diverse as Victorian vaudeville and cutting-edge data storage, from the early history of Alzheimer's disease to the immortality of human consciousness. Blending the solemnity of Sebald with the breathlessness of Bernhard, the result is equal parts rambunctious and ruminative, poignant and hilarious -- a wild ride through a storm of grief, ambition, integrity, remembrance, and love.'
Source: Publisher's blurb.
Notes
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Author's note: For Emily
Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of
Works about this Work
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Best of 2022 : Part Two
2022
single work
review
— Appears in: The Saturday Paper , 17 December - 6 January 2022;
— Review of A History of Dreams 2022 single work novel ; The Teeth of a Slow Machine 2022 selected work short story ; What Fear Was 2022 selected work short story ; Moon Sugar : A Novel 2022 single work novel ; Waypoints 2022 single work novel ; Every Version of You 2022 single work novel
-
Best of 2022 : Part Two
2022
single work
review
— Appears in: The Saturday Paper , 17 December - 6 January 2022;
— Review of A History of Dreams 2022 single work novel ; The Teeth of a Slow Machine 2022 selected work short story ; What Fear Was 2022 selected work short story ; Moon Sugar : A Novel 2022 single work novel ; Waypoints 2022 single work novel ; Every Version of You 2022 single work novel
Awards
- 2023 longlisted Miles Franklin Literary Award
- 2023 shortlisted ASAL Awards — ALS Gold Medal
- 2022 shortlisted Tasmania Book Prizes Tasmanian Literary Awards — Premier's Prize for Fiction